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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22636339">Our Daughter From Across The Water</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot'>Nitrobot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>VenomCat Stories [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Spider-Man (Comicverse), Venom (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brother-Sister Relationships, Budding Love, Eddie tries to be a dad, Emphasis on 'tries', F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Felicia tries to be a mom, Female Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Mother-Daughter Relationship, Multiverse Shenanigans, Parallel Universes, starring VenomCat ship baby, with a little bit more success</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:41:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>52,841</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22636339</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was all going so well for Eddie; the symbiote was finally cured of her furious hunger, he'd landed a job doing something he didn't hate, his first paycheck went towards the first good meal in months for them both...<br/>And then some kid rolls up, claiming to be his daughter. And she's got a symbiote that spawned from his own. And Felicia Hardy, <i>Felicia freaking Hardy</i>, is apparently her mother.<br/>This is gonna be a weird week.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eddie Brock/Felicia Hardy, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>VenomCat Stories [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1315946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've got many a plan for my mainline VenomCat series starting from BWRAO, but their kid is still a long way away. Even so, I had this idea to have her show up in a fic without having to write her being born first. Basically, she's from the future timeline that begins with BWRAO, but then gets transported to this universe where her parents aren't together.<br/>In terms of canon-timeframes, this takes place during Venom (2016) just before the Nativity story arc. So, in a way, Sleeper's showing up before he's even born. Lol.<br/></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What’d I tell you, Symby? Real food for both of us.” With the diner so packed with other bodies sheltering from the autumn cold outside, Eddie didn’t need to keep his voice down- and the steak stuffed into his mouth helped to muffle his words enough so that no one stared at him for talking to himself. At least, that’s what it always looked like to others who weren’t <em> his </em>Other.</p><p><b> <em>“It does taste a lot better than brains,” </em> </b>she admitted, reluctantly savoring the meat that didn’t come from a bank robber’s bones. He knew she really enjoyed it though, from how she flooded his tastebuds to soak up her fair share of the flavor before it sank down to their shared stomach.</p><p>“See?” Eddie let himself smile around another mouthful. “I knew you’d changed. Maybe we just need to keep each other fed, is all.” He still felt guilty for ever doubting her like he had, to the extent that he <em> abandoned </em>her and let her fester in the likes of Flash and… the Scorpion. Neither of them liked thinking about that. So they didn’t. They just ate, and talked, and loved each other. As it should be. As it always should have been. </p><p><b> <em>“Eddie... “ </em> </b>Symby gurgled in his ear, like her mouth was a rumbling belly.</p><p>“Still hungry?” he asked her through a mouthful. “We can order some more when we’ve finished this one.” All the food in the world was a small price to pay to keep his darling happy- and it was nice to actually afford it for once, thanks to his new job. He could feel Symby shaking through his veins though, making goosebumps shoot up all over his skin.</p><p><b> <em>“Someone is coming for us," </em> </b>she warned, and Eddie immediately dropped his fork.</p><p>“Huh? Who?” He looked over his shoulder as he hissed, then the other, turning around in his chair to sweep his eyes over the whole diner. No one he recognised, no one who was giving off any obvious signs of danger… not even anyone passing by the windows seemed to match what was making Symby so agitated-</p><p><b> <em>"In front, Eddie!" </em> </b>His neck was yanked back around by a tug on his tendons, and where before there was an empty space in front of him he now saw… </p><p>A girl. He blinked, but she was still sitting there. Just a little kid, barely a teenager; bundled up tight in a black winter coat, with a green scarf tucked around her neck. Her gloves and hat were a light green too, the latter having a pair of red fabric cat ears sticking up from it. A pair of bright blue eyes stared at him from the middle of all her cozy padding, as if expecting something from him. Eddie looked around himself once more, as if he could find the hell she'd wandered in from.</p><p>“Uh… you lost or something?” he asked, the only reason he could think of for why she was there. Even so, he was self-aware enough to know that he wasn't the kind of guy young kids would go to for help.</p><p>The girl made a muffled sound behind her scarf, before she tugged it down from over her mouth.</p><p>“Kinda," she answered, flicking her eyes from his face to his half-eaten steak and then back again.</p><p>“So… can I help you? Where are your parents?” He took another large bite of his dinner, so she didn't get any ideas about his willingness to share it. That proved to be a mistake when she replied.</p><p>“Well, my dad’s right here in front of me.”</p><p>Symby had to redirect his breathing elsewhere, so he didn't choke to death before he managed to cough his way through his shock. “E-excuse me?” </p><p>The kid waited until he'd gulped down some water to soothe himself, though it seemed more like she was waiting for something else. And when it didn't come, she sighed and sat up as straight as she could manage.</p><p>“Okay, this might not make sense at first," she said, "but just listen. You,” she pointed a mitten across the table at him, before slapping her hand against her padded chest, “are my Dad.”</p><p>Eddie blinked at her, but she still refused to fade away. Worst of all, his coughing fit had drawn more eyes than he was comfortable dealing with- especially with a strange kid bugging him. He sank down into his seat, trying to hide from the attention while also keeping his voice down.</p><p>“I think you’re confusing me with someone else," he said in a hush through gritted teeth.</p><p>“No, we’re not," the girl insisted. Symby was telling him to finish the steak so they could leave, but Eddie had lost his appetite. </p><p>“Well you must be," he told the girl while waving for the bill, "cause I don’t <em> have </em> any kids.”</p><p>“None that you know about," she argued, tilting her head so the ears on her hat flopped over.</p><p>“Look-” He sighed, burying his face in a hand until, through his fingers, he saw the bill be put down. “Who the hell are you?" he asked while reaching for his wallet. "How old are you?”</p><p>“I’m ten in November," she told him proudly (probably because it was only a month away). He counted out dollars while, at the same time, counting in his head where his life had been ten years ago- Christ, was he seriously considering she was telling the truth? Still, didn't hurt to be sure… he finally, reluctantly, remembered when his divorce happened- fifteen years ago now- then shook his head. </p><p>“Yeah, no, you can’t <em> possibly </em>have come from me.” Strangely he didn't feel much relief as he said that, nor as he stood to leave her behind.</p><p>“Why not?" she asked with a pout, looking up at him from the table as he towered over her. "How does my age prove that?”</p><p>“Cause…” He trailed off, his words tripping over his tongue as he tried to think of how to explain. When did kids usually learn about the birds and the bees…? He wasn't about to be going into <em> that, </em> so he took the safe route. </p><p>“Because it’s been a <em> very </em>long time since I last… did what adults do that leads to babies being born." Somehow it was embarrassing to admit that even to this kid, even when he mumbled it out. "So leave me alone.” With that, he marched to the diner's exit without another glance back. Once he was away from the windows, he let Symby cover him up better from the chill. </p><p><b>"</b><b><em>She's following us," </em> </b>she told him as she flowed over his ears.</p><p>"I know," he answered. He remembered what it was like to be a stubborn kid; it only went away after years of being ignored, and even then it only ever lay dormant until something came along to dig it back up to the surface. At ten, this one still had a while to go until it was completely sapped from her. He didn't look back, but he could hear her trying to keep up with four frantic steps to every one he made.</p><p>“I know your name!" she called out over the tap of her feet on the sidewalk. "It’s Eddie! Eddie Brock!”</p><p>He froze, and he felt her collide with his legs just as he turned around. By reflex he almost seized her shoulder, but then he had to fight Symby back from his fingers so they wouldn't morph into claws. He stopped himself, something he might not have been able to do just a week ago, in favor of pulling back and rubbing at his neck.</p><p>“<em>Haaaahaha </em>, don’t worry, sweetie, that psycho isn’t around anymore…” He said it loud enough for anyone who might have heard what she'd blurted out- the street looked empty enough, but he wasn't gonna take any chances. Then he started walking beside her, just to hiss a warning across.</p><p>“Will you keep your voice down?! That name can get me in a <em> lot </em> of trouble!” It <em> had </em> gotten him in trouble, ever since he was born.</p><p>"But I was right, wasn’t I?" the girl asked, not even attempting to hide a smile behind her scarf even as the cold started turning her mouth pale. And did those ears on her hat just wiggle? The wind wasn't <em> that </em> strong, was it? He shook his head, and resumed ignoring her.</p><p>But unlike herself, the fact that she <em> was </em> right was something Eddie couldn't ignore. How the <em> fuck </em> did this random kid know him? Was she fucking with him? Was it some sort of gang initiation or youth hazing? Was she just bored? Christ, he thought kids kept themselves busy on their phones nowadays instead of pulling shit like this on strangers. </p><p>“Yeah, whoop dee doo, you looked me up and then randomly decided to bother me," he muttered, not looking down at her so he could stop wondering how familiar that smug expression was to him. But now she was pouting again. He could see it in the reflection of the window they walked past, before it was obscured by a plume of smoke from her frustrated sigh as she stomped over to stand in front of him. </p><p>“If you really don’t believe me, then… ask Symby!”</p><p>Eddie froze one more. They didn't collide this time, which was very fortunate because he didn't think he could hold back any reflexes now. The close smell of adrenaline started to flood in from Symby, her presence in his brain like the clouds of air that gusted from his flared nostrils. He looked down at the girl, but now he only saw a potential threat as the symbiote filled his pupils.</p><p>“Who told you about…?” He silenced himself just as it started to trail into a growl, despite Symby encouraging it with a pulse around his throat that mimicked his own speech muscles. </p><p><b> <em>“She knows too much, Eddie. She shouldn’t… she </em> </b> <b>couldn’t</b> <b> <em>…”</em> </b></p><p>She was a mutant. Or some kind of fucked up government product. Or, hell, maybe <em> he </em> was the one that was fucked up and she was just a hallucination. Whatever she was, it was… dangerous. Most people only knew who he was because he'd tried to kill them. Only his <em> enemies </em> knew. But… this was just a kid. A kid who somehow <em> knew </em>. Was she gonna try and blackmail him? Was she even really just ten years old?</p><p>She didn't look smug anymore. Now she looked scared, starring to back away from him. Even her hat was sagging. That didn't change how much of a threat she was, but… God, he hated this. Eddie gulped down the symbiote, unclenched his fists and was grateful that he was somewhere public. </p><p>“What’s your name?” he asked her, hoping it would help <em> something </em>make sense to him. She looked down, chewed on her scarf, kicked her heels together before finding the strength to look back up at him. </p><p>“Jamie," she said quietly. And, after a beat, it made sense. In a single moment of realisation it made perfect, horrifying sense. </p><p><em> 'What the…? What the fuck?' </em> How? How could <em> anyone </em> know… why even bring <em> her </em> into all this?! Symby was having trouble sensing where this new anger was coming from, struggling with its heat in his veins. But Eddie knew where it was from. He knew exactly where, and why it was there. Why <em> she </em> was here, with <em> that </em>name. It was to get under his skin, deeper than any symbiote could reach. </p><p>“Did someone send you after us?” His voice was colder than the wind around them, and he saw the girl flinch.</p><p>“N...no, no. I just-” She was trying to bury herself in her coat, but Eddie leaned down before she could hide.</p><p>"Don't lie to us, kid." He didn't hide the growl this time as it coated his teeth. "It is <em> very </em>important that we know why you're here-"</p><p>His interrogation came to a swift end when she screamed at him. </p><p>"I don't <em> know </em> why!" It was a squeal from the depths of her frozen lungs, emphasized by her tiny limbs slicing through the air. "That's why we came to you! We wanna go <em> home </em>! We… I-I want my Dad…" And then the sobs came, loud and aching even though she covered her face with her gloves. </p><p>This was… not what Eddie had been expecting. Not at all what he'd wanted. Certainly not what he's been prepared for. Christ, he'd just made a little girl cry. No matter how much he redeemed himself, now he definitely wasn't getting into heaven. Symby seemed even more confused than before, recoiling away from the awful sniffling sounds. She'd learned quickly what sadness did to humans, and why it was best avoided. Eddie just didn't want to see a kid upset. </p><p>"H...Hey, don't cry, just… here." He herded her away from the sidewalk, still squatting down so he could coax her hands away from her face. Tears were splotched all over her cheeks, and it cold enough that they might've started freezing solid soon. He used the end of her scarf to wipe them away, shushing until her sobs finally subsided to muffled hiccups. He'd really thought this poor girl was a threat? His own paranoia was the only enemy here. If she seriously thought he was her father- and clearly there must have been a reason for it, with how much she knew- then this was no way to treat her. Not when he- when <em> they </em> were supposed to be <em> better. </em></p><p>"I didn't mean to make you upset," he told her, quietly so that he didn't set her off again. "It's just… we have to be careful. Not many people know about us, and those who do…"</p><p><b> <em>"Would much rather they didn't know us at all." </em> </b>Symby sounded close, more than an echo in his bones. Then he saw the shadow on his shoulder, and realised she'd decided to show herself. Eddie was about to hiss at her not to scare the kid even more, but then... </p><p>“Goo mom!” The girl squealed again, but now it was with joy as she rushed forward to grab the tendril of goo coming up from Eddie's shoulder. Somehow she embraced Symby without her melting in her arms- probably because she was just as shocked as her host.</p><p>“You can tell, right?" the kid asked breathlessly, releasing Symby with a grin. "You know who I am? And Sleeper too?” </p><p>Eddie looked from girl to symbiote, wondering what part of the puzzle he was missing now. Symby wasn't moving, still stunned by the embrace- no… no, it was something else. She was thinking. Sensing. Feeling… she reached out a smaller branch of herself to the girl, and she just stood there as it poked against her jacket. Then it went <em> right through it </em> , making the kid giggle before it pulled back out. Eddie watched while mystified, because Symby wasn't sharing her thoughts just yet, and he <em> swore </em> he saw her hat moving on its own. If she had a real pair of cat ears under there or something he was gonna just finally admit himself to a psych ward-</p><p><b> <em>“She’s telling the truth, Eddie,"</em> </b> Symby told him promptly, with absolutely no doubt in her mind that she now opened to him. <b> <em>"And that’s not all. She has her </em> </b> <b>own </b> <b> <em>symbiote… and he came from me.”</em> </b></p><p>She showed him the proof. Within the kid's DNA that she'd found in her skin, the paternal chromosome… it matched him. The symbiote too, matched her genetic template in only one possible way. And that was that. In the space of seconds, they had both become parents.</p><p>Eddie saw Symby sink back into him with her verdict, but he was watching the kid. The kid called Jamie. The kid <em> he </em> had supposedly named… Jamie. With her own symbiote, Symby's <em> own </em> child…! The red ears on her hat wiggled again, taunting him now before they blinked. They weren't ears- they were <em> eyes </em> , watching him the whole time. Her whole outfit must have been made of her symbiote…  and she'd said ' <em> we </em> '. ' <em> Our' </em>. The truth had been in front of him all along. Such speech had become so natural to him that he hadn't even thought to question it in someone else.</p><p>Now all he <em> could </em> do was question. He had many, of course, but for now only one made it out intact.</p><p>“How… how the hell…?” Symby wouldn't lie to him. But how could she <em> possibly </em> be telling the truth? When did she spawn, when did <em> he </em> spawn…? </p><p>She was still in shock over her unknown child, just like Eddie was. </p><p>Jamie… she'd come out of nowhere with her symbiote. She came looking for him, knowing he wouldn't believe what she had to say. And she just wanted to go home...</p><p>This world wasn't hers. Eddie didn't have much experience with the 'multiverse', not beyond getting dragged into a war with Poisons with a whole team of other Venoms (was one of <em> them </em> her real dad?), but Symby bridged the gap in knowledge for him. It was the only thing that made sense.</p><p>Yes. Perfect sense. Cause this girl was far too innocent to really be his.</p><p>“Where the hell did you come from?” he whispered, not knowing if he even wanted an answer to spoil everything. Jamie shrugged within her symbiote sibling.</p><p>“It’s a long story," she said, in a voice left tattered by whatever had dragged her here.</p><p>Eddie stood up, wary of four eyes on him now. Jamie and… Sleeper, she'd mentioned, they both blinked up at him, waiting for his choice. What choice? To take them in, or leave them behind like he'd first planned? That wasn't a choice to be made at all, but they were expecting it to be. They'd done all they could, proven everything, and now it was up to him.</p><p>Well, in that moment he was their father. There was only one thing to do.</p><p>“You… better come with us, I guess. Tell us about it on the way.” He reached out his hand for her mitten, and when he clasped it he could feel her sibling latch onto his fingers, interlacing with the tendrils of his faraway mother.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> Two hours ago…  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Jamie stood outside her home- or, at least, where her home should have been. It didn't look like home. Didn't smell like it to Sleeper, either. But this <em> was </em> the right address, she was sure of it. The street was the same, more or less, if you didn’t count how there was a Starbucks where there should have been a Subway and a Subway where the apartment should have been. </p><p>Oh yeah, her house was now a sandwich shop. And Mom and Dad weren’t inside, she’d checked just to be sure. Then she went in and checked again, just to see if she could swipe a cookie without anyone noticing.</p><p>They noticed. But they weren’t fast enough to catch her before she was out the door and on the other side of the street. And there she stood in the shadow of an alleyway; looking at her not-house, holding the cookie limply while Sleeper reached his mouth over her shoulder to nibble at it.</p><p>"What d’you think?” she asked her big brother, brushing crumbs off the cuff of her coat.</p><p><b><em><span class="Sleeper">“I think we should go back to bed,”</span></em> </b>Sleeper mumbled through a full mouth. </p><p>"That's gonna be difficult when we don't know where our bed <em> is </em> ." <em> 'Or our room, or our parents…' </em></p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“Oh... true.”</em></span> </b>Sleeper let out a belch that blew her hair across her face, before ducking behind her neck when someone passed by on the street a little too close for comfort.</p><p>“This all started when we woke up, right?” Jamie asked quietly, sinking back into the wall of the alleyway like she'd seen Dad do. Of course, he could camouflage himself in the shadows with Symby, but Jamie hadn't quite learned how to use her brother like that (and Dad didn't usually like them copying him and Symby, for some reason).</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“We didn’t so much ‘wake up’ as just snap out of daydreaming,"</em></span></b> Sleeper corrected, curling around her neck in a thick black scarf to shield the shivering skin there. He was right cause that <em> was </em> what it had felt like; one moment Jamie was thinking of flying around the city, Sleeper carrying her through the air, both of them landing a kick on the Shocker while Mom and Dad kept the Vulture distracted, and Uncle Pete and Aunt MJ making Rhino run around Times Square in circles...</p><p>Then Sleeper was in her ear, telling her to wake up, his voice like a buzz of electricity through her head. Her eyes snapped open, and just like that they were sitting on a bench near the edge of Central Park. She was still in her pyjamas, but Sleeper made better clothes for her. From there, they made their way back home only to find that it wasn't home at all. </p><p>“But… I went to bed," Jamie thought out-loud. "I remember… I had my jammies on. Mommy read us a bedtime story. Dad left the nightlight on.” The purple one, the one that made her room look like a lava lamp. And the story was the one where Uncle Pete fought Mysterio… was this was of <em> his </em>tricks? Maybe he'd kidnapped her uncle and parents, and it was up to her and Sleeper to save them-!</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“This isn’t right,"</em></span></b> Sleeper interrupted with a maw of more cookie crumbs, dropping them all over her coat.</p><p>“I know," Jamie sighed, brushing down her front with a thick-gloved hand as she leaned back against the brick wall. "Our house is gone, our parents-"</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“I mean, this cookie,"</em></span></b> Sleeper clarified, holding it up in front of her with a thin tendril. <b><span class="Sleeper"><em> "It tastes weird. They didn’t make it right."</em></span> </b> </p><p>Jamie's frown deepened, turning into a lopsided scowl once she took a bite for herself. Tasted like… coffee. The kind Dad drank before he went to work. Blech.</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>"And that sign is the wrong color, too,"</em></span></b> her brother pointed out while she was trying to scrape the gross coffee-cookie taste off her tongue. <b><em><span class="Sleeper">"Shouldn’t it be green instead of blue?”</span></em> </b></p><p>Jamie blinked at the glowing Subway sign, only now realising that the sign <em> was </em>indeed blue.  "Hey… you're right!" She must have been so shocked by the fact that the sandwich store had replaced her bedroom that she hadn’t even noticed the glaring color error. </p><p>Central Park had looked different, too- though, she hadn’t thought much of it. There was more grass, a lot more trees than she remembered there being, and the lake was bigger too. Dad often told her about the huge fire that started in the Park before she was born, the night when he and Mom fell in love, but Jamie started barfing when he got that far.</p><p>She wished he was here. She’d put up with all the icky love stories he had, if it just meant she could be near him. </p><p>Jamie scrunched up her face, squeezing her eyes closed before Sleeper noticed any tears about to come out. No crying! She wasn’t a stupid baby anymore, she was almost ten! And if this really was a Mysterio illusion or some kind of brainwashing scheme, it was up to her and Sleeper to figure it out and break free!</p><p>Although… that probably wasn’t what it was. With her back still against the cold brick wall, she sank down to a squat so she didn’t need to think about standing.</p><p>“What was it Uncle Peter said about... ‘pararararel’…’paralalalel’...” Even once the bitter coffee taste was wiped away from her tongue, she struggled to get it around that word.</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>"Parallel universes?”</em></span> </b>Sleeper managed for her. </p><p>“Yeah, that.” She tried not to pout at her big brother being such a know-it-all. Not like he did it on purpose. Symbiotes were just like that. They knew more than humans about some things, and humans knew more than them about other things. Sleeper taught her about stars and planets, and she taught him how to work the TV remote.</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“They’re the same as ours, usually,”</em></span></b> Sleeper was saying about parallel universes. <b><span class="Sleeper"><em> “But with… little differences. Usually little.”</em></span></b></p><p>Like colors and flavors being wrong. And places being where they shouldn’t be. Jamie felt herself shivering more, pulling her brother tighter around herself.</p><p>If this really <em>was</em> another universe they’d found themselves in, then it at least meant one thing; their parents were here. Some version of them, at least. Somewhere. Maybe with their own Jamie and Sleeper to take care of… </p><p>A streetlight suddenly sputtered to life outside the alleyway, followed by the rest of them lining the street. It was getting dark already. And colder. And they had nowhere to spend the night. Jamie straightened up again, hugging her chest as Sleeper morphed into something cozy for her, trying to think over the sound of her hammering heart. Sleeper could usually help calm her down, but that was only if he wasn’t panicking as well.</p><p>As they huddled within each other in the shadow of the street, symbiote and host- brother and sister- both arrived at the same conclusion at the exact same moment. </p><p>“I think we need to find Mom and Dad.”</p><p>That much was obvious. But <em>how</em> ? If the house wasn’t where it should be, and they weren’t where they should be, and <em>nothing</em>was as it should be-</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“Breathe, sis.”</em></span></b> Sleeper reached deep into her lungs when she started hyperventilating, putting pressure on them to bring the convulsions back under control. <b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“It’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.”</em></span></b></p><p>Jamie gulped, trying to hold back and let her brother ease her fear. It was better not to fight against him when he was trying to help. Then she let out a deep breath, and he slowly retreated from around her ribs to let her have her own calm. </p><p>He was right. He usually was. He was the big brother, after all. They’d get home. They’d find Mom and Dad. Everything would be fine. It had to be…. right?</p><p>“Okay…” Jamie started walking down the alleyway, to the other street at the end of it. And she spoke, to both herself and to Sleeper, to get her thoughts out of her head before they started to clutter. </p><p>“Their names will still be the same. We should find a computer and try to look them up. A library, maybe? Mom’ll be tricky to find if she’s the same here as back home, but Dad won’t be able to cover his tracks as well as her, so-”</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“He’s sitting in that diner across the street.”</em></span></b> Sleeper seized her legs, stopping her in her tracks, as he snapped a tendril holding his head towards the other side of the road. There was a diner there, sure, but no-one who looked like Dad could be seen in any of the windows...</p><p>“How do you know that?” she asked Sleeper, who was still trying to tug her towards the building while she kept her feet planted firmly on the pavement.</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“He has my mother,"</em></span></b> he insisted, <b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“I can sense her.”</em></span></b> Now he was trying to propel her forward, almost throwing her off-balance as she fought against him, crossing the road while hopping on one leg to stop him from taking control of the other. Thankfully the street was mostly empty, no weird looks at how she was arguing with herself and hobbling back and forth across the pavement. </p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper">
      <em>“He’s in there, Jamie! He must be! He always has Mom with him!”</em>
    </span>
  </b>
</p><p>Jamie was getting real tired of her brother trying to treat her like a puppet, just cause he could sense something she couldn’t. But he wouldn’t rest until she’d at least looked around the place, so she pulled him tight around her face in a scarf as she pushed the front door open- </p><p>And there he was. There they both were. Jamie saw her Dad tucked in the corner, all by himself. No, not quite by himself. There, in the shadow of his jacket, something that most would have excused as a trick of the light, something that was in fact two white eyes slowly blinking. </p><p>“That’s one thing that hasn’t changed, at least,” she breathed, curling her brother tighter around her as she went to get some answers. And a hug, hopefully. </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>...</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And that’s when we found you."</p><p>They’d reached his building in the time it took for her to tell her story. Eddie stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at the girl whose gloved hands were engulfed in his, still not able to believe who she really was. But Symby had no reason to lie to him. She <em> couldn’t </em>lie. He’d seen the truth just as she had, and here the truth was shivering next to him. </p><p>"You just… woke up here?" he asked. </p><p>Jamie gave a small nod as her breath misted up from her covered mouth and running nose. She sniffled as Sleeper reached out a thin tendril to help clear her face (and Eddie wondered how Symby kept him from feeling the cold, but her son had yet to learn that trick). </p><p>"There might have been something else, but… we don’t remember.” Under her thick padded coat, her shrug was like she was lifting the world up on her shoulders. “I can only remember being at home last night." Then she blinked twice, like she was trying to hold back tears again. In this weather, they’d likely just freeze on her cheeks before Sleeper could wipe them away. </p><p>"Well… tomorrow, we'll need to find someone who knows how to get you back," Eddie said, feeling completely useless as he reached for the handle to the front door. Well, not <em> completely </em>useless. At least he’d saved her from a night stuck out in the cold.</p><p>"Yeah…" Jamie shuffled through the door once he got it open, rubbing her arms while the meagre sheltered heat of the hallway worked its way around her. Sure, the radiators around here rarely worked, but at least the walls kept the wind out. </p><p>When they reached his floor up the two flights of stairs, she’d let go of his hand and shed her symbiote gloves and scarf. Sleeper’s form now only existed as the cat-eared hat, and that too wobbled and vanished as Eddie led Jamie across the landing to his apartment.</p><p>“Mind your step,” he cautioned as he unlocked the door. “Doorway’s a little bumpy.” He held it open so she could go in ahead of him, watching her heed his warning with small calculated steps venturing into the room.</p><p>“This is where you live?” She turned around to question him, and with her hat gone he now saw the color of her hair; blonde, brighter than his own, tied up in two ponytails framing her head. But her eyes… if his ego was still what it used to be years ago, he would have said that the resemblance was uncanny. Huge and blue, and silently asking him if this was <em> seriously </em>where he lived. He’d never felt so self-conscious thanks to a nine-year-old before.</p><p>“I know it’s not much, but…” He rubbed the back of his neck as he closed the door. “Beats sleeping in the street.” </p><p>Speaking of sleeping, just where the hell was he gonna put her tonight? He only had one bed and… as cruel as it sounded, he wasn’t thrilled about giving it up to someone who would only take up half the space on it. But he wasn’t cruel enough to shove her on the floor. The only other option was the chair. Maybe if he found some blankets, he could put enough of them down to make it a little more comfy...</p><p>“Dad?”</p><p>Eddie snapped his gaze away from the ragged chair to Jamie still standing near the door. With her coat gone she was already wearing PJ’s, the shirt showing a big whiskered cat’s face on the front (Man, she must just really like cats). He saw her before he really heard her, and when he <em> did </em>hear her he practically felt his blood rushing all the way to his head. Like Symby had just flipped all his arteries upside-down for the hell of it, just to see how long it would take for him to buckle and faint.</p><p>“Don’t call me ‘Dad’, kid.” He had to rub at his throbbing temples just from saying that cursed word. “Just… Eddie. Call me Eddie.” It would have comforted her more to call him something familiar, sure, but after finding out who his cross-dimensional daughter was named after he really wasn’t up for confronting that <em> other </em> demon of his tonight. And the kid didn’t seem all that bothered, anyway.</p><p>“Okay. Eddie?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“I need to pee.”</p><p>“Bathroom’s through there.” He pointed his thumb towards the only other door in the room, just off to her left. Jamie went to it and reached up on her tiptoes for the light switch, peering inside as the bulb flickered to life.</p><p>“But there’s no bath in here,” she pointed out. Eddie closed his eyes so she wouldn’t see him rolling them.</p><p>“Okay, Miss Perfectionist, the <em> toilet </em>room is through there,” he corrected. “Help yourself.”</p><p>Once the door clicked shut and she was out of sight, he finally allowed himself to collapse into his chair, half-wishing the worn upholstery would just swallow him up.</p><p>“Jesus fucking Christ, Symby…” His Other had been quiet until now, not a single word or tremor or even twitch under his skin during the walk with Jamie. Now she curled around his skull, trying her best to soothe his throbbing temples while he held his face limply in his hands.</p><p><b> <em>“I know,” </em> </b>she sighed in between his neurons.</p><p>“This is fucked,” he groaned into his fingers. “This is completely and utterly fucked.”</p><p>
  <b> <em>“I know.”</em> </b>
</p><p>“What the hell are we supposed to do? I’ve only <em> just </em> figured out how to look after the both of us, I can’t do that with a kid and another symbiote too!” </p><p>
  <b> <em>“I-”</em> </b>
</p><p>“And don’t you dare just say ‘I know’ again!” Eddie snapped his head upright, holding an accusing finger near his ear in warning. Symby recoiled from the flash of heat across his cheeks, and he instantly felt guilty for it. Christ, he was going out of control again. Was he ever <em> in </em>control to begin with?</p><p><b> <em>“It’s only for tonight, Eddie,” </em> </b> Symby told him, slowly crawling back around his head to rest herself on his shoulder. <b> <em>“We’ll find someone who knows more about this stuff tomorrow. They can look after her. And help her.”</em> </b></p><p>Usually when she sounded so sure about something, he was happy to believe her. Usually. But this was about as far as ‘usual’ as you could get without going to another planet. </p><p>“What about the symbiote? Sleeper?”</p><p><b> <em>“What about him?” </em> </b>He could feel Symby shudder against his skin, betraying deeper.</p><p>“Well… he’s <em> your </em> son,” he pressed. “You got nothing in mind for him?”</p><p>More shudders from her serpentine form, before she drew back and dissolved under his skin where she could blend into his pulse. <b> <em>“He’s better off away from me,” </em> </b> she decided. <b> <em> “I don’t want to ruin him.”</em> </b></p><p>Of course. Symby didn’t have a good track record with her spawn… Sleeper didn’t seem like one of his bloodthirsty siblings, but it was hard for Eddie to tell when he couldn’t hear him. Then again, if some other Eddie had decided the symbiote was well-behaved enough to live inside their daughter, that more or less told him what Sleeper was really like. Assuming the other Eddie wasn’t a complete psychopath. Would have been very in-character if he was, though...</p><p>That was besides the point, though. Symby could tell he was good. Which is why she was terrified of something going wrong again, of <em> doing </em> something wrong. But that wasn’t right. She wasn’t the deciding factor of what her spawn became. It wasn’t her fault that the Life Foundation symbiotes, that Carnage… that Red had turned out like that. It <em> wasn’t </em>her fault. </p><p>But Eddie had spent long enough trying to convince her of that, so he knew better than to get into it all again. Not tonight.</p><p>“...Would the spider help?” he asked, not wanting to say <em> his </em> name if he could ever help it. “He’s done this dimension-jumping shit before.”</p><p>
  <b> <em>“He might. But we’d need to ask him.”</em> </b>
</p><p>Which meant finding him, convincing him they weren’t up to something evil, convincing him that this kid really was from another universe <em> and </em>that they hadn’t just kidnapped her, putting up with at least five hours of wise-ass snark… him telling Jamie how awful her father really is. </p><p>“Yeah… we’ll keep him as a last resort.” Eddie let himself fall back into the chair, trying to imagine how comfy a nine-year old would be trying to sleep in it. First night problems for the first night. Get her to sleep, keep an eye on her, don’t make her cry again; that was all he had to deal with right now. Everything else could wait until morning. They’d have to, lest his head exploded and Symby found herself nibbling on chunks of his grey matter. One part of his frontal lobe named ‘daddy issues’, another branded ‘traumatic childhood’, his cerebellum labelled ‘who is Jamie’s mom’, no, seriously, who the <em> hell-?! </em></p><p>He heard the toilet flush through the wall, and a few seconds later Jamie clicked the door open. </p><p>“You wash your hands?” he asked. She lingered in the doorway for another second before retreating back inside, and giving Eddie another few seconds for him to try and contain his unbearable… stress? Confusion? Inevitable onset of insanity?</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Relax, Eddie. Or you’re going to have a coronary incident.”</em> </b>
</p><p>He could feel her in his ribcage now, trying to hold onto his heart before it tried to fight its way up through his throat. He was swallowing on reflex, holding back a tide of nausea, and if not for Symby he’d have rushed into the bathroom and hauled Jamie away from the sink so he could be sick.</p><p>“I can’t help it, Symby,” he hissed, “I mean… if I’m supposed to be her father... then just <em> who the fuck is her Mom </em>?”</p><p>This was bothering him way too much, but… it wasn’t that long ago when he’d seriously thought he’d have a family of his own. That it was within reach for him. This wasn’t the same, not at all, Jamie wasn’t really <em> his </em>kid, but...</p><p>Her universe, was it one where he still had Annie? Where she was still alive… where she didn’t hate him?</p><p>“Eddie?” Jamie returned once more, just in time to save him from losing more of his mind than he could spare. “I’m kinda hungry.”</p><p>Food. Simple need. He could deal with that. Did he even <em> have </em> food? With no time to cook or prepare anything he’d just been eating out this whole time... shit. He pushed himself onto his feet for a vain search through the fridge. Bottles of water and obligatory beer. Nothing really edible, except… he pulled open the bottom drawer, where he kept Symby’s stash (though, if the cure from Alchemax really worked, then she wouldn’t even need it anymore). </p><p>“All I’ve got is, uh… candy bar.” He held up the bar of Dove chocolate for her appraisal, and her eyes went turquoise as they lit up. </p><p>"Sleeper's favorite!" She reached up for it as he was handing it to her, and he thought he saw a black tendril slip out of her pyjama sleeve. </p><p>"Really? It's Symby's favorite, too," he told her, unable to ignore a tug at the corner of his mouth.</p><p>"We know.” She peeled the wrapper open and snapped off a piece with her teeth. “Does she want some, too?"</p><p>Eddie heard Symby gurgle at the base of his throat, a sound of gentle approval as she declined the offer. </p><p>“She says no,” he told Jamie, “but thanks.” </p><p>She seated herself on the chair as she nibbled at the chocolate, pulling her legs under herself, still chewing when she asked another question. “Why can’t we hear her?” </p><p>Eddie was hunting for the TV remote now, a distraction that they both were in need of. </p><p>“Probably cause <em> your </em> symbiote is only linked to <em> your </em> version of her,” he guessed while looking under his bed. “We can’t hear Sleeper, either.” Though, with them being aliens Sleeper and Symby likely had some other way to talk to each other. Not that Symby wanted to make use of it right now.</p><p>“Oh.”Jamie had finished her chocolate by the time Eddie found the remote, and she neatly folded the wrapper aside as she burrowed deeper into the chair. </p><p>“Uh… see if you can find something you like,” he said as he handed her the control. If there was one thing any nine-year old was an expert in, it was channel-flipping.</p><p>Jamie appraised the remote, then the TV, working her small hands around the plastic. "Today's Friday, right?"</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>"D'you get SmackDown on this?"</p><p>Probably not, but Eddie only ever really watched the news. The other however-many channels were a mystery to him. "Don't know. Knock yourself out.” He ducked into the bathroom, then popped out again to clarify, “Not literally!" He didn’t know if kids at her age learned what metaphors were, but he wasn’t gonna risk it. </p><p>But at least she was fed, warm, somewhat occupied. No immediate danger of her bursting into tears again. So he was just gonna have a moment to himself. A moment of sanity, or as close as he could manage. </p><p>He drenched his face with cold water from the sink, better than any metabolic shock Symby could give him. She was silent again, but she was still there. That was good enough, knowing he wasn’t completely alone in this. His pulse was still a thunder in his head, but it was almost soothing. Letting him know he was still alive, for better or worse. That this was his reality. </p><p>No hallucination. No dream. </p><p>For better, or worse. </p><p>He was betting on worse. It was always the safe choice. </p><p>Still standing over the sink with water dripping from his cheeks, he felt the nausea fade. He felt the pressure in his brain slowly leak out in bursts of air through his nostrils.</p><p>But, most of all, he just felt bad for Jamie. Not only for having him as a Dad, even a hypothetical ideal version of himself, but for being stuck here with him. Here, in his shitty apartment, when she should have been safe and sound and tucked into a warm bed covered in stuffed animals. She must have been terrified out of her mind, no matter how well she hid it. </p><p>She was just a kid, after all. <em> His </em> kid...</p><p>He couldn’t even remember much of when he’d been one, too busy doing everything he could to make Dad at least crack a smile to actually enjoy anything, but… he knew he’d been a stupid kid. Jamie didn’t seem as bad as he’d been, but if she <em> was </em>his daughter with at least some of his genes… at least one of them was gonna be one for stupidity. Hopefully she’d gotten most of the others from her mom. Whoever she was. Whoever she was… </p><p>He needed to know. How the hell was he gonna sleep tonight if he <em> didn’t </em>know?</p><p>Eddie looked at her from the bathroom, seeing that she’d moved herself onto his bed so she was closer to the TV, her legs dangling a little from the mattress. He dried off his face, took a deep breath- the symbiote around his heart helping to inflate his lungs- and knelt down in front of Jamie with a hand on her shoulder. She cocked her head at him, but otherwise was focused entirely on whatever channel she’d found behind him. </p><p>“Listen, Jamie…” Eddie had trouble saying the name even after clearing his throat. “I need to know something very important.” </p><p>“Mm-hm.” She was only half-paying attention, nodding while looking past him at the TV.</p><p>“In your universe, where you come from… who is your mom?” Someone he knew? Someone he didn’t know? Someone who didn’t even exist here? He didn’t know what the best answer even was.</p><p>Jamie blinked, like she was shaking herself out of the television trance. She looked away from him and her mouth opened, showing a row of wide-gapped teeth, and Eddie braced himself for what would come out. </p><p>Her eyes, blue and brimming with her brother’s presence, travelled back to him- but she still wasn’t looking at him. She was still looking past, and what she saw over his shoulder made her burst into a grin. </p><p>“Mommy!” She pulled herself over the side of rhe bed, running right past Eddie to plant herself just inches away from the TV screen. Eddie blinked, craning his neck to look past her head blocking most of the picture. It was a news report, one of the many crime updates New York City’s airwaves had to put out just to keep track of all the villains. </p><p>Even if he couldn’t see it, he could hear what the report was saying. Who it was about.</p><p>
  <em> “-just one of several jewellery robberies that have taken place in the last month alone. At tonight’s crime scene, police finally had a confirmed sighting of the culprit- notorious thief Black Cat.” </em>
</p><p>Eddie barely stopped himself from hauling Jamie out of the way of the screen to see the proof for himself, stumbling as he turned to look over her shoulder. </p><p>The report was showing a picture. Slim silhouette, broken up only by the glow of streetlights and the white of her hair caught by the camera’s flash. </p><p>There she was. Black Cat. Also known as Felicia Hardy. <em> That </em>Felicia Hardy. Jamie could see her as well as he could, and she called her Mommy. </p><p>Eddie felt like he was gonna be sick again.</p><p>“Your… y-your mother… is <em> Black Cat </em> ?” What the fuck? <em> What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?! </em></p><p>“She told me all about her life as a burglar, and she looks exactly the same here!” Jamie said in hushed awe, finally turning away from the screen to show a grin stretched all across her face. “D’you know her?”</p><p>
  <em> ‘What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!’ </em>
</p><p>“I’ve… run into her once or twice.” Eddie gulped down his dinner before it surged back up out of his throat, relying on Symby’s efforts to keep it together. Him and Felicia. Him and Felicia? Black Cat and Venom? How?! How the fuck-?!</p><p>“What’s she like?” Jamie, the apparent proof that such a thing could and <em> had </em> happened somewhere in the multiverse, pressed on while sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Can we go see her? Is she friends with Goo Mom?”</p><p><b> <em>“Is this bad?” </em> </b>Symby asked, apparently confused by the physiological force of Eddie’s shock.</p><p>‘<em> Most likely. Most definitely.’ </em> Felicia… of all the possible women, she was <em> not </em> high on the list. He didn’t think she was even <em> on </em> the list! But that explained why Jamie’s hair was brighter than his. Why she liked cats. The only thing it didn’t explain is… why the fuck would someone like <em> Felicia </em>ever get together with him?!</p><p><b><em>“I think we need her here,</em></b>” Symby advised from his jaw, trying to stop him from grinding his teeth.<b><em> “That was a recent bulletin. She’ll still be out tonight.”</em></b></p><p>Eddie nodded slowly, like his neck was on a loose hinge while rubbing the back of it. </p><p>“I’m gonna go try and find her,” he told Jamie after a necessary sigh. “Just, uh… stay here. And don’t touch anything.” </p><p>He turned toward the window, his usual way to leave the apartment, before he realised that letting Jamie see Venom likely wasn’t a good idea. Just cause she knew about symbiotes didn’t mean that she knew what he could become with one. Hell, she and Sleeper didn’t even seem to have a Venom form. Which was fine by him. He wasn’t about to scar her by showing things that a better him wouldn’t want her seeing. He wasn’t gonna ruin her. </p><p>...Fuck, sometimes he hated when his Other was right. </p><p>In a rare sight he left through the door; made sure it was locked, turned to leave, and then turned right back to unlock it and stick his head through to give Jamie another last-minute warning.</p><p>“And if we <em> do </em>find her,” he said, finding her seated once more on the bed, “don’t... tell her who I really am. That I’m your… you-know.”</p><p>Jamie cocked her head again, so that her ponytails dangled. “Why?”</p><p>“She…” Eddie drew out the word into a long droning sound as he tried to think of what would come after it.</p><p>
  <em> ‘Probably still hates me for breaking her nose in a Spider-Man fuelled rampage? Has no reason to trust me for anything? Thinks I’m fucking insane like the rest of this city?’ </em>
</p><p>”...won’t take it well,” he eventually came up with. “Not at first, at least. I’ll handle it when the time comes. Just... be good while I'm gone.” </p><p>With that, he closed the door and locked it once again, and managed to reach the top of the stairs before his legs started to buckle.</p><p>“Symby, I think I’m gonna pass out,” he muttered while his Other reinforced his legs by snapping tendrils around his knees.</p><p><b> <em>“You are not,” </em> </b>she scolded.</p><p>“Can you at least <em> make </em> me pass out?” If he was lucky, he’d wake up to find himself in bed that very morning. Or maybe in another universe of his own.</p><p><b> <em>“No! Keep it together. Felicia can help.” </em> </b>Once again she sounded so confident and sure of herself, for no discernable reason Eddie could think of. He and Felicia had worked together to take down Price, sure, but he knew better than to consider her as a friend, or even an associate. They did what they had to do, then went their separate ways. He’d briefly offered her a path away from being a criminal, but from the looks of things tonight she was right back to her usual self. </p><p>“And just how the fuck do you propose we explain all of this to her?!” he hissed. Never mind the whole dimension-hopping-miracle-child thing, she had no way like him to confirm that Jamie was really related to her. And when she saw that she had a symbiote, that would be the end of the line. Like most people who came near them, Felicia’s encounters with symbiotes had always been bad. As soon as she saw Sleeper, she’d assume it was some kind of plot Venom had put Jamie up to and get the fuck out of dodge.</p><p>But if he could somehow convince her, if he could just tap into that heroic side that liked to show up now and again… as long as Felicia felt like Jamie was a helpless kid worth helping, that was all that mattered. Even if she couldn’t help with getting Jamie back home, at least… well, at least there’d be a Mom around to keep her happy. He could just pretend like he’d found her on the street. His workload would be automatically split in half. </p><p>And if she said no… then he’d just need to go to her boyfriend. Or, ex-boyfriend. Or whatever the fuck she and the spider were nowadays.</p><p><b> <em>“First things first,”</em> </b> Symby pointed out, silently eavesdropping like she was wont to do. <b> <em> “We have to find her.”</em> </b></p><p>Eddie found himself on the bottom floor now, a few footsteps away from the building’s front door. “Again… <em> how </em>?”</p><p><b> <em>“She bonded with my clone, remember?” </em> </b> Eddie vaguely did, though he hadn’t really thought that being forced under Maniac’s control counted as ‘bonding’. <b> <em>“There might still be traces of it in her bloodstream. If I concentrate…” </em> </b></p><p>He felt Symby gathering at the top of his spine, spreading tendrils across his skull, joining her neuron network with his own. He could feel her thinking; rearranging herself, tracking down her own genes within her form, scanning through the entire and exact DNA structure. And then, once she’d compiled her chemical self, she took it into her senses and threw it out into the wild, like casting a net out on dark water. The same mechanism that let them sense danger, that let them know when they were followed or watched, was now being stretched to its limit and passed over every single living being it ran into. Most slipped through the net; unremarkable, unwanted (though they could see Sleeper a few floors above them looking through the fridge). But if Felicia was close enough, if she really did have traces of symbiote still left in her, the net would snag on her. It would catch her, mark itself with her, and he’d know exactly-</p><p>There. Twenty blocks away on the rooftops. Just a five minute run for Venom, who was already starting to emerge in the hallway.</p><p><b>“Got you.”</b> Eddie was actually impressed by their work, momentarily distracted from the whole reason why they were looking for Felicia in the first place, and then distracted completely by the rush of his Other engulfing him as they stepped outside and launched themselves onto the city skyline where they truly belonged. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>That night's target hadn’t exactly been a challenge for the likes of Felicia. The goods were always nice to have, sure, but she most looked forward to testing her skills or luck, or both, on a new lock or high-tech safe. Especially after so long since her last solo heist, she’d wanted her return to form to be something worth bragging about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh well. At the very least, the owner of the store would learn to get better security than a latch on the back door if they were smart (then again, if they were </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> smart they wouldn’t have opened a jeweller’s in New York in the first place). And she’d earned herself some screentime on the nightly news, if the reporter van parked outside when she was leaving was anything to go by. Recognition always felt good, whether you were a world-class thief or a lowly janitor stuck on the night shift. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she’d satisfied her ego, her craving for something shiny and new, and she hadn’t ran into any spiders this time. In her mind, it would have been the perfect night... if not for her latest stalker on the roofs with her. She would have guessed it was Peter at first, but he’d never had reason to sneak around after her. And, of course, the whole ‘trying to kill him for the last two years’ thing had probably scared him off. She knew it would take more than one team-up against a symbiote freak to mend that rift, but she wasn’t really in a hurry to fix everything. Not unless she needed something from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But if it wasn’t Pete, then who else could it be? She couldn’t hear any footsteps, but there </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>a sound of impact behind her. Like someone was trying to glide close to her. She didn’t look over her shoulder, in case whoever was chasing after her took it as a cue to attack. But she’d long ago learned to trust her gut over almost anything else. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If they wanted to hurt her, they’d likely have done it already. Maybe they were trying to follow her back to her apartment, to ambush her or just find out where she lived, to sell the info onto whoever wanted to know where New York’s most accomplished burglar kept all her treasures… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever they wanted of her, she knew exactly what she was doing as she lead the mystery pursuer on a pointless loop around the neighbourhood, buying herself time to gather her wits and confront them head-on. She knew she wasn’t in danger yet. That made it easier to turn on the heel of her boot, skidding to a stop at the edge of the roof. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s close enough.” She called out just loud enough so that the shadow would undoubtedly hear her. Now facing back to where she was running from, she still couldn’t see any sign of a pursuer. Her eyes darted to the nearby buildings, to the ventilation shafts and AC units, hyper-vigilant and ready for the threat that would jump out at her-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, it didn’t really jump. Rather it crawled up onto the roof from the wall below, a fistful of matte claws grasping at the asphalt and pulling the rest of the pitch-black body upwards. He sat hunched before her, like some kind of shimmering gorilla with his claws tucked into his palms and knuckles pressed into the roof under him. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t Venom.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“How the hell did you see us?” </b>
  <span>he growled in a guilty mutter. He was supposed to be one of New York’s so-called greatest threats to peace and order, and he looked like he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Felicia had to shake her head to remember that, only ten years ago, this was the same guy who broke her face over Spider-Man. And, just like with her and Pete, it would take a lot more than one desperate team-up for her to want the likes of him anywhere near her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think the real question is, what the hell are you following me for?” Her first guess would have been that he felt like playing vigilante, but then he wouldn’t have bothered to stalk her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Venom didn’t approach her, but she still felt the urge to take a step backwards, with her feet close to the roof’s edge. Even if she slipped and fell, it would be a good headstart to getting away from him. </span>
</p><p>
  <b>"We don't want to hurt you, Cat." </b>
  <span>He wasn’t drooling, so she was almost inclined to believe him. But not enough to bring her guard down, of course. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> you want, then?" Whatever it was, it was gonna be dangerous. Or gross. Likely both. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Venom curled back his lips, baring every inch of his monstrous teeth, but it wasn’t a snarl. Instead the mouth yawned open, the jaw pulling itself impossibly far back, and where the back of his throat should have been there was instead a human head. Eddie flinched away from the sinuous tongue of his other self, as it curled under his chin before simply dissolving into the black goo that still covered his body. Though the symbiote made him look twice as large as any regular person, his head didn’t look too small for the rest of him. A testament to the fact that, even without an alien helping out, Eddie could be pretty scary. Felicia twitched her clawed gloves, one hand full of stolen jewels and the other curled into a ready fist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We have a… situation." Eddie straightened his posture as he spoke, standing a good few inches over her even with the heels of her boots lifting her up. It took her a moment to parse his ‘we’ as meaning ‘me and my alien goo’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Okay…?" Felicia narrowed her eyes in confusion, stopping herself from crossing her arms over her chest- her usual reflex when she felt like her time was being wasted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"And it involves you,” Eddie added. “Obviously. We…” He scratched at the back of his neck with claws that could strangle a bear, and sighed. “Look, some kid we've never seen before just came up to us today, asking for help. Said she was from another universe, or dimension, or whatever. And that…” He squeezed his eyes shut, like he was cringing from whatever was in his head. “That </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>are supposed to be her Mom."</span>
</p><p><span>Though the run across the rooftops had left her lungs somewhat empty, Felicia couldn’t help the laughter that came spluttering out. But Eddie wasn’t laughing with her. So he was</span> <span>being serious. That just made her want to laugh even harder.</span></p><p>
  <span>"I'd think I'd know if I had any long-lost children running around the city, Brock." Against her defensive instincts, her free hand had migrated to her closest hip; planted there to keep herself from doubling over. Even though he was clearly the one going crazy here, Eddie just looked at her like he was disappointed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> you,” he insisted, “I mean... the you that exists where she's from. I think.” His clawed hands went to his head, digging into his scalp like he was about to start tearing his hair out. “Look, I don't know how this shit works, but I do know that this kid is lost and scared and… and I’m just trying to do something good. Which is why I’m here, talking to you. So… yeah. I need your help to help her.” He crossed his arms over his chest, masking the white spider there that made so many people mistake him for a hero at first glance. The way he stood before her, not quite meeting her eyes, he looked embarrassed to be asking in the first place. Like he really had no other choice. </span>
</p><p><span>Was he really telling the truth, then?</span> <span>If he just wanted to ambush her and take tonight’s haul for himself, surely he wouldn’t have bothered with such a complicated story. He was a writer, sure, but journalism and science-fiction didn’t cross paths very often. </span></p><p>
  <span>It was only a few weeks ago that they’d joined forces against Lee Price; after they’d dealt with him, when Felicia was trying to figure out what to do with herself now that she’d lost everything, he’d told her to try being a hero again. Maybe he was trying to take his own advice. Do what was right. Be like the spider that everyone kept thinking he was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But all Felicia knew for sure was… a kid needed help. Whether or not the kid really was her ‘daughter’, she also knew that she couldn’t just walk away with a clear conscience. And her conscience was already enough of a distraction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Where is she?" she asked, almost expecting to see the kid hidden somewhere in Eddie’s symbiote mass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Our apartment." He looked at her like he was surprised his plea had worked, his brows perched high over wide eyes, but quickly shook himself out of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” Felicia tucked her ill-gotten goods into her glove, ensuring they wouldn’t fall out with a firm grip. “Fill me in on the way over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now it was her following Venom across the city, as he told her about the girl. She learned that the kid was called Jamie, that she’d seen Felicia on the news and insisted that she was her mother, that she liked chocolate and cats. Felicia was almost excited to meet her; with her life, she didn’t really have much experience with young ones. She’d never really thought about having kids, either. But it would be interesting to see the ‘what-if’, assuming Jamie really </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> supposed to be hers...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Venom stopped near the building that must have been where Eddie lived. She watched him carefully crawl down the wall towards one of the windows, like he was trying to look in without being seen. Well, of course he wouldn’t want Jamie to see a goo monster staring at her. But then, why not just go through the front door? Unless he had something against them, like her. Always paranoid of what neighbours saw her going in and out... </span>
</p><p>
  <b>“Shoot...” </b>
  <span>Felicia heard Venom mutter below, and she looked over the side of the building to see what had happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the problem?” She started abseiling down the wall to investigate for herself, digging her glove’s grappling hook into the roof. Venom had climbed into the window by the time she reached it, now back to regular Eddie standing in the apartment and looking down at the bed against the wall. It took Felicia a moment to find Jamie lying on what must have been Eddie’s own bed, fast asleep under a black-and-green blanket. Her face peaked out slightly, the TV casting electric colors over it. Her blonde hair looked like Felicia’s once did, before it started going white, but that and the fact that Felicia was also exhausted was all the similarity she could see. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, she was somewhat surprised. Eddie was telling the truth after all. He had a kid, and no idea of what to do with her. But she was asleep, so he didn’t have much work to do until tomorrow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Must have been a big day for her,” Felicia said quietly. “Better let her get some rest." With that, she started climbing back up her grappling hook.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I guess s- hey, wait! Where're you going?!" Eddie rushed to the window to hiss up at her, staring in disbelief. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"She's not the only one who's tired,” she told him, and she would have shrugged if her arms were free. “I'll be back over tomorrow morning. Just don’t wake her up and you’ll be fine until then."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wh- Cat! Don’t leave her here, I don’t know how-!” By the time Eddie tried whisper-shouting up at her, Felicia was already back on the roof with no intention of going back down to babysit. But she didn’t leave right away- she lingered at the edge, just in case she heard the kid waking up. But that wasn’t what she heard. There was a familiar sigh from Eddie, and his voice lifted up from the still-open window below.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess we’re on the chair tonight, Symby.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia felt her brows furrow, caught off-guard by her own confusion. Then she realised. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>He named his symbiote?’</span>
  </em>
  <span> That was what it must have been, since the name was right there in the species; </span>
  <em>
    <span>Symby</span>
  </em>
  <span>-ote.</span>
  <em>
    <span> ‘Huh. Cute.’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>Things like that helped keep her mind off the impossible daughter sleeping away just a few floors below, somehow able to drift off despite (apparently) being in an unknown world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even so, with her latest jewels stashed under her pillow, Felicia found that night that she didn’t sleep quite as easily as Jamie did.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>In their bedroom, Eddie lay staring at the ceiling. He wanted to look down at her, but then he’d have to answer her. And he wasn’t ready for that. But she was still waiting for the response. Even though she could hear his pulse humming so frantically, like a diesel generator running in his chest, she was still waiting for him to say something. The fact that he hadn’t immediately said ‘yes’ should have been answer enough, but she was still waiting. It wouldn’t be a ‘no’ unless he told her so himself.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And… he couldn’t say either of those. But he had to say </span>
  </em>
  <span>something, </span>
  <em>
    <span>right? In desperation, out came automatically his three favorite words to put together.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t know…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Then Annie sighed under his chin like she was expecting the cop-out all along, pulling his hand away from her hair as she lifted her head up. “What are you scared of? I’ll be the one doing most of the hard work.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He was forced to look at her now, because looking away at this point would have probably broke her heart.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Before it’s born, sure,” he agreed, “but after that…” He shut his eyes with a sigh. It wasn’t the hard work that scared him. Not that at all. She must have known that. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I think it’d help, you know,” she muttered, curling back into him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Help what?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Your anger issues.” A sharp finger traced over his jawline. “That’s what your dad did, right? He took it all out on you. That’s how he sleeps so well and you don’t.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t want to be like him,” he told her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh, Eddie, babe… you already are.” Annie’s breath was warm on his neck, then across his cheek as she lifted her head up again. “You just won’t know it until after the baby. Think of how easy it’ll be to throw around. How easy to feast on…”  </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She felt sticky. Liquid. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something black washing over her, like a wave of oil crawling up her shoulders-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Their heads look so soft, so juicy…” </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>It was still her voice under that familiar growl, still her eyes under the white mask, her smile under the teeth that started swarming around her face-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“No nasty thoughts to ruin the taste...”</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She traced a finger under his chin again, and the claw sliced right through his skin-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Eddie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hrngf-!” He jolted awake, almost falling out of his chair and giving himself whiplash as his neck jerked aside. Symby was all that kept him from toppling to the floor in fright, glueing his hands to the armrests with black tethers. She coaxed his pulse back down, cushioned his throbbing brain with herself, and once that was done she turned his fragile neck towards the small voice that rescued him from the dream. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kid. Jamie. He remembered now. She was sitting on his bed, still in her long symbiote PJs, with big cat-shaped slippers on her feet peeking out under her crossed legs. So many cats on her. Well, she </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> the daughter of Black Cat. He remembered that too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was also staring at him, like she wasn’t sure if he was the still the same man who’d found her last night. No wonder, since he probably looked like a mess- even more so than usual. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh… morning.” Eddie wiped at his damp forehead, feeling the sweat starting to dry on his skin. “You sleep alright?” Better than he did, he hoped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sleeper helps,” she said with a vigorous nod. “That’s how he got his name. You were making noises.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie pulled himself upright with Symby’s help, stumbling a little from spending so many hours in an awkward position. “I have bad dreams.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie turned her head to watch him as he went to the bathroom. “Me too. But doesn’t Goo Mom help them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt Symby stir along his bones, but she didn’t say anything as he ran the faucet in the sink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes,” he answered Jamie, then inhaled sharply as he splashed ice-cold water over his face to wash away the last of the nightmare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annie had once asked if he wanted kids. Only once, since they weren’t together long enough for her to ask any more than that. But... she hadn’t asked like that. He didn’t think she did, at least… though he didn’t like thinking about her for too long. Or at all. Especially not right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“It’s not her fault,” </em>
  </b>
  <span>Symby whispered, like she was worried he’d wilt away if she spoke too loud. Eddie couldn’t tell what she meant by that, if she was talking about Annie or Jamie- though, did it really matter?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shook his head, still dripping water from his chin, wiping the rest away with his hand as he left the bathroom. Jamie was still on the bed, but her pyjamas had been replaced with a simple shirt and jeans. If he didn’t already know her clothes were made from symbiote, he’d have never been able to tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you find Mom?” she asked, rocking back and forth with her crossed legs. “Where is she?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘If you had just stayed awake a little longer, you could have been all her problem by now.’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>With so long spent listening to Symby, he sometimes didn’t recognise his own terrible thoughts. Or, in this case, didn’t want to admit that they were his own. Symby was right, after all, no matter what she’d really meant. It wasn’t the kid’s fault she got stranded in another reality. No-one’s fault, really. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t ask for someone like him to be her father… or for the likes of Black Cat to be her Mom. Though, speaking of her… what time was it? She hadn’t given Eddie a specific time of arrival, so maybe he still had a few hours before he had to deal with her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She said she’d be over this morning,” he told Jamie, “but-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just as he located his clock, finding that it was almost nine AM, the front door shook in its frame under the weight of three stiff knocks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie froze, his bloodstream grinding to a halt as Symby flooded his nervous system. She would wrap around him at a moment’s notice, regardless of whether or not they’d scar Jamie with the sight of Venom. Though, when Eddie turned to warn Jamie to stay quiet, he found that she’d fled into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Smart kid. Now, who the hell was at the door? No-one would want to come see Eddie Brock. And no-one knew where Venom lived. No-one except…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh. Of course. He’d gone and lead her right to his apartment last night. He opened the door, and Felicia was practically mocking him with how bright-eyed and bushy-haired she looked at this ungodly time in the morning. She only gave the briefest of glances over him, but it was enough to make him feel completely underdressed in her presence. Though she wasn’t in leather and fur this time, she still favored black and white for her designer wardrobe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Already awake, huh? Good. Where’s the kid?” She took the liberty of letting herself in by handing him her empty Starbucks cup and pushing right past him. </span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“None left for us?” </em>
  </b>
  <span>Symby hissed in his ear as she drained away his adrenaline rush, disappointed that the coffee cup was empty. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning to you, too…” Eddie closed the door behind Felicia, tossing the cup towards an empty corner to get rid of later. Meanwhile she had looked all around his tiny apartment in just two seconds, and he could tell she was about to berate him for somehow having so little furniture and such a mess on the floor at the same time. But before that could happen, the bathroom door cracked open an inch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mommy…?” Jamie sounded several years younger just from seeing Felicia, like she could actually believe her mother was in the room with her. Felicia must have heard it in the kid’s voice as well as Eddie did; she didn’t force the door open any further, or approach it at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that you, Jamie?” She waited for the kid to emerge herself; slowly, cautiously, still hanging onto the doorframe like it was a safe anchor. Eddie said nothing, but he could feel symbiote claws scraping against his palms. If Jamie was too anxious, then that might affect Sleeper… and God only knew what damage a scared kid with a symbiote could do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But as Jamie took a step forward, hugging herself and looking at the floor, Felicia knelt down on one knee so that she was closer to Jamie’s height.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I look like your Mom?” she asked, not unkindly. Jamie nodded twice, still looking at her feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. But… my mommy’s a little bigger.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>fatter</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie nodded again, and Felicia let out a bark of laughter that almost made Eddie jump. Just like that, the tension between pseudo-daughter and parents was dissolved into nothing, and Eddie felt like he could breathe again.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’m not her, kid,” Felicia told her. “My name is Felicia, and I’m gonna try and help you get back home.” She straightened up to face Eddie. “I think I know someone who can do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie was still trying to get his head around Felicia even being there and not trying to kill him- hell, he was still getting used to Jamie and the whole… concept of her even existing. But he had to appreciate Felicia’s practicality. Whether or not she was as freaked out as him by the whole thing, she knew what was important- getting this girl back where she belonged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which meant finding someone who had even the faintest knowledge of other universes. Which mostly likely meant...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please don’t tell me you mean Parker,” Eddie groaned. He’d suspected all along that he’d have to bring him in at some point, but he thought he could prepare for at least a few more days...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” Felicia argued, confirming his worst fears. “He’s a scientist. And he’s actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>been </span>
  </em>
  <span>to other universes. He might even know what one she’s from. Unless </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>happen to know anyone better?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you talking about Uncle Peter?” Jamie sounded a little more like herself now, still holding her arms across her chest but no longer afraid of looking up at Felicia. Both she and Eddie looked down at Jamie as she blinked big blue eyes right back at them. They were both asking the same question, though only Felicia said it outloud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Uncle’, huh…?” She looked at Eddie as if he would know anything about it, and he just shrugged. He would have suspected that Parker existed in Jamie’s world, but… was Peter supposed to be his </span>
  <em>
    <span>brother</span>
  </em>
  <span> or something? </span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Don’t like that,” </em>
  </b>
  <span>Symby hissed in his ear.</span>
  <b>
    <em> “Don’t like that at all.”</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘You and me both...’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>Christ, this alternate family was giving him more of a headache the more he learned about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, first things first,” Felicia announced, promptly looking away from Eddie when she saw he wouldn’t be of any use. “Breakfast. You hungry, Jamie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie nodded, wrenching her head up and down like it was her job. “Can we have pancakes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure we can. We just need-” Felicia trailed off as she looked around Eddie’s tiny apartment once more, like she was searching for something that should have been there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Eddie, where’s your stove?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie rubbed at the back of his neck, where he could feel Symby curled along the top of his spine. “I… don’t have one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia hesitated with a blink, as if she was trying to tell if he was joking. “Then... how do you make food?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie shrugged again, angling his head away so he could hide the embarrassment flushing across his face. “We eat out, mostly... or order in.” Between keeping Symby under control and keeping the nearby streets safe, he didn’t have time to cook. The place hadn’t come with much more than the bed and refrigerator anyway, and he didn’t see the point in buying anything else that he’d hardly ever use.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those were the other excuses he had ready, but when he braved Felicia’s stare of disbelief he found that he couldn’t get them out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really,” she deadpanned, crossing her arms tight over her chest. “Didn’t know you could get brains off a menu.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-!” Eddie started to shout, but then quickly realised that he shouldn’t. It would scare the kid, and it would make the neighbours complain. So he gritted his teeth, clamping his jaw in place as he hissed, “I do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> eat brains!” He hadn’t gone through all the trouble of helping out Alchemax to cure Symby’s cravings just to still get treated like a wild animal. Just as he was about to firmly inform Felicia of that, he felt something tug at the hem of his shirt. While Symby roiled around in his skull in her own fury, he looked down to see Jamie screwing her face up at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why d’you eat brains, Eddie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span>! I-” Eddie covered his face with his hands so his exhausted groan would be muffled enough. If Jamie really was Felicia’s kid as well as his, he would have suspected that she was riling him up on purpose. Though, her lack of horror meant she must have known about Venom... that her father, the other Eddie, must have trusted her with at least some of that knowledge. Assuming that the Venom in that world was anything like the one he became. Assuming that there even </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>a Venom in that world. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The headache was getting worse. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is… not the point right now.” Eddie exhaled as he rubbed at his forehead, willing Symby to numb his brain if not just follow her instincts and devour it whole. “Can’t you take Jamie back to your place for now?” He turned to Felicia, who was eyeing up his window for some reason (burglary, most likely). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Suppose I could,” she replied. “C’mon, Jamie, let’s get you back to civilised society.” She offered her hand to Jamie, who looked at it for a few seconds while her own arms lay flat at her sides. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is Eddie coming too?” Jamie asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie saw Felicia’s empty fingers twitch just before she glanced at him. “I’d rather he didn’t know where I lived. No offence, Eddie, it’s just that I’m a lot more careful than you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“None taken... I think.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie looked again at Felicia’s hand, but then turned to face Eddie. “I don’t wanna go without him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia lowered her hand, now placing both on her hips. “Why?” Eddie saw her eyebrows rise up, just as he cast a wide glare at Jamie. He hadn’t said why the kid was with him. He wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>going </span>
  </em>
  <span>to say why, no matter what, because it would mean utter disaster. He’d told Jamie not to say anything, right? He swore he did, last night before he left, but Felicia was waiting for an explanation and Jamie was sweating just like him-   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just as Eddie opened his mouth to try and save Jamie the stress of lying, the kid pulled through herself with a gulp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um… I feel safer with him.” Jamie looked over at him to confirm, but all Eddie could do was wheeze out a sigh of relief. Felicia’s eyebrows were still hovering, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for a cross-examination. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Felicia sighed. “We’ll find somewhere outside to eat, I guess.” Now knowing that Eddie wouldn’t be left behind, Jamie took Felicia’s hand this time. “You need a moment to... get yourself ready?” she asked Eddie as she lingered near his door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. Let’s just go.” He opened the door and was out of it in seconds, leaving the girls to take their time down the stairs as he rushed to the bottom floor, trying to make the most of the little time he had to be alone again. Symby hadn’t had much to say; not wanting to distract Eddie, preferring to listen, and even now she didn’t give much more than a gurgle in his ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Felicia seems like she’d be a good mother.”</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie grunted under his breath as he reached the last step. “Seems that way. For now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t really know what he was expecting Felicia’s demeanor to be, but he’d never seen her be so… considerate before. Gentle, even. Maybe it was a genetic thing- like how Symby could tell Sleeper was her spawn, Felicia could tell that Jamie came from some distant part of her that she was never supposed to meet. Or maybe it was just a lady thing. Maybe she really did believe that Jamie was her daughter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either way… she seemed like she really wanted to help. Which was suspicious. What was she planning to get out of it? It was unlikely that she’d help a former enemy and total stranger out of the kindness of her heart. Not impossible… but unlikely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only thing Eddie knew was sure was that Felicia could never, under absolutely any circumstances, know who Jamie’s father was supposed to be. She’d surely ask at some point, but so long as Jamie didn't let it slip out then he could handle whatever came next. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He also knew that he was hungry. Starving, even. Nightmares could sometimes do that to you. He waited for the girls while his stomach and symbiote rumbled away.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I like your hat, Jamie.” Felicia held the girl’s hand as they crossed the street while Eddie lagged a little behind, wanting to keep eyes on both of them. Jamie had re-adorned her cat-ear hat, though it was hard for Eddie to think it was cute when he now knew it was made from a symbiote. </p><p>“Thank you.” Jamie pulled the hat a little lower down on her head as she walked beside Felicia. “My brother picked it for me.”</p><p>“You have a brother?” Felicia asked, once again making Eddie’s adrenaline spike and Symby struggle to absorb it all. They both knew Jamie meant Sleeper, but if Felicia knew symbiotes were involved...</p><p>“Y...yeah,” Jamie said, and her hesitation let Eddie feel some relief as Symby flowed around his thudding heart. “He must have got left behind. At home...”</p><p>Jamie wasn’t stupid. She might blurt things out without thinking, but she could remember what Felicia wasn’t supposed to know just in time to cover them up. Even so, Eddie wasn’t going to let the two of them out of his sight. Thankfully Felicia seemed satisfied enough by the answer, probably figuring that asking Jamie too much about home right now would just make her upset. </p><p>But she’d ask more, eventually. She’d want to know all about Jamie’s parallel family, what she herself was like in another life. Just like how Eddie was dying to know all about himself...</p><p>Christ, it was too early in the morning for this. </p><p><b> <em>“Too early in the lifespan of this universe,”</em> </b> Symby helpfully added.</p><p>“So where exactly are we going?” Eddie asked the back of Felicia’s head, only now realising that maybe he should have asked before blindly following the city’s most famous crazy cat lady (who he somehow had a baby with… no, he wasn’t gonna get over that any time soon). At least there didn’t seem to be many others out this early, so he didn’t have to suffer the stares he usually managed to attract- not cause they knew he was Venom… he hoped. No, people just liked to stare when you looked like a bodybuilder.</p><p>“I know somewhere that does breakfast,” Felicia answered him over her shoulder. “It’s just around this corner.” And it literally was; just as Eddie followed the two of them to the edge of the street, he saw Felicia approaching the place; some sort of bakery or cafe, or fusion of the two. He’d never noticed it before, despite it being so close by. Though, he usually just ignored places where he knew he wouldn’t be welcome.</p><p>“Looks expensive,” he pointed out, feeling himself scowl as he stopped before it.</p><p><b> <em>“And delicious…” </em> </b>Symby almost ruined his stern expression by making him salivate. </p><p>“It is,” Felicia confirmed for Eddie as she opened the door for Jamie. “Which is why I like it. But if you’re <em> intimidated </em>, you can just wait outside.”</p><p>Eddie’s scowl carved itself in deeper as he wiped at his mouth, and he made himself follow them in before the door closed on him.</p><p><b> <em>“I feel chocolate in the air, Eddie,”</em> </b> Symby purred. <b> <em> “I like it here.”</em> </b></p><p><em> ‘Well, don’t get too used to it,’ </em>he warned her silently as he found a far corner to sit at and watch the two girls from. They both stood at the register, with Felicia leaning down towards the kid. </p><p>“Jamie, why don’t you go see if there’s something you like in that case over there?” she suggested, in that uncharacteristic soothing way she’d so recently adopted. “You can pick out anything you want, my treat.”</p><p>“Anything?” The ears on Jamie’s hat seemed to twitch from excitement, but luckily Felicia didn’t see it. She just nodded as she straightened up and ordered something for herself, leaving Jamie to marvel at the selection of treats that probably weren’t meant to be eaten for breakfast (but like hell was that gonna stop her). Eddie could feel Symby roiling through his bloodstream with jealousy.</p><p><em> ‘If not for the whole ‘stranded a universe away from home’ thing, you’d be living the dream of every pre-teen, Jamie.’ </em>Though that was the whole point, Eddie supposed. Distracting Jamie from reality, making her feel safe. If he was gonna learn anything about what kind of world she came from, what kind of family they all made together, she’d need to be in a good mood before he went about making her horrifyingly homesick.</p><p>And, most importantly, he’d need to get her away from Felicia somehow. Or at least make sure she lied about who her father was. Maybe Felicia already thought Peter was the culprit. Eddie could deal with that. He hated passing off <em> his </em>kid as one from that hero-complex asshole, but he could deal with it if it meant keeping Felicia’s sanity intact (even if his own felt like it was long gone).</p><p>“You look like hell.” Felicia appeared in front of him, taking the seat opposite and setting down two coffee cups. “Drink this before you scare her off.” She pushed one of the cups towards him as she picked up her own. Eddie hesitated, surprised at Felicia’s apparent generosity, but it didn’t seem to be anything poisonous as he took a cautious sip.  He wasn’t really a coffee drinker, since the kind that actually tasted good was also the kind he couldn’t afford, but apparently Felicia could afford it just fine. Besides, he and Symby would need all the energy they could find to get through today. Felicia probably felt the same way as she drank half her cup in one go. He wondered if she slept any better than he did, after suddenly finding out she was a parent. Though, with how little time she had to prepare for the job, she was pretty good at it.</p><p>“You sure you’re not her mom?” Eddie asked while looking at Jamie picking out almost half the store’s stock for herself. Felicia didn’t even give her selection a second glance, letting out an amused huff over the rim of her almost-empty mug. </p><p>“I think I’d know if I’d given birth in the last ten years. Kids are easier to deal with than you’d think. Just treat them how you’d want to be treated at their age.”</p><p>‘<em> Easy for you to say,’ </em> Eddie thought, <em> ‘when you have the money to keep them happy.’  </em>He didn’t say that, though. Best not to argue with the one person so far willing to help him.</p><p>“When I was ten,” he said, ”I wanted a rocket ship to go to Mars. Think she’ll ask for something like that?”</p><p>As Felicia drained the last of her coffee, she gave Eddie a quizzical look with her eyebrows tilted up. “Why Mars?”</p><p>Eddie was actually caught off guard. What did it matter how a dumb kid reasoned things? He shrugged. “Cause it’s nearby, and I thought an alien could be my friend.”</p><p>“And now here you are with an alien living inside you. Dreams really do come true.” Felicia smiled as if she really meant it. Eddie just sighed. </p><p>“More like, here I am stuck babysitting a little girl who fell out of the sky,” he muttered around another sip. ‘<em> And her symbiote.’ </em></p><p>Felicia’s smile faltered, and she looked over at Jamie still puzzling over whether she wanted chocolate or strawberry icing on her selection of five cupcakes. “She’s really taken a shine to you.”</p><p>Eddie shrugged like he hadn’t noticed. “I guess so.”</p><p>“Why’d she come to you in the first place? You’re not exactly ‘approachable’. Especially for a scared and lost kid.”</p><p>It wasn’t an accusation, but Eddie still felt his guard snap up. “I dunno. I guess… I came to her first, actually. Just found her on the street. Like she was homeless or something. I got worried. Asked her if she was alright, and she just spilled the whole story to me.” The lie came easily to him, as most did.</p><p>Felicia tilted her head to one side, casting her loose white hair over one shoulder. “You believe it?”</p><p>“No reason not to. Not unless she’s got something wrong… y’know, up there.” He tapped at the side of his head, as if he had any right to be calling other people crazy. “But in that case, I <em> especially </em> don’t want her left outside on her own.”</p><p>“Hm.” Felicia looked off to one side, pushing her empty coffee cup away. “Then I guess we better find Peter soon.”</p><p>Though Eddie agreed, he couldn’t stop from cringing at the mention of the spider. Symby wasn’t eager about it either, but at least she knew when to set hatred aside. </p><p>“I’m not exactly on speaking terms with him,” Eddie pointed out.</p><p>“Neither am I. You’re not the only one who’s tried to get him killed.” </p><p>Once again, Eddie was surprised. Either Felicia had changed a lot since their brief team-up against Carnage so long ago, or he just didn’t know her that well to begin with. “I thought you and him… y’know…”</p><p>“Not anymore,” she corrected firmly, looking away once again. “Not for a long time. But that’s not the point. The point is, he’s the last person on this Earth who would turn away a kid in need.”</p><p>That much Eddie could believe, at least. “You know how we can get to him?”</p><p>Felicia didn’t answer for a few moments, instead tapping the fingers of one hand on her crossed arm. </p><p>“...I knew where he lived,” she eventually said. “Once. But there’s no way he’s still there. And he doesn’t have an office anymore, as far as I know…”</p><p><b> <em>“We know where he is, though,</em> </b> <b>”</b> Symby reminded Eddie.</p><p>“Didn’t he go back to working for the Bugle?” He suggested it like it was his own idea.</p><p>Felicia perked up. “How d’you know that?”</p><p>“Cause I… read it,” he admitted. “Sometimes. Just to see what the competition is writing.”</p><p>“Competition?”</p><p>“Believe it or not, I <em> do </em> have a day job now.”</p><p>She gave him a look of almost-pleasant surprise. “Color me impressed. How long you managed to keep it for?”</p><p>“...A week.”</p><p>“Color me less impressed, then.” With that last sting to his ego, Felicia stood up without pushing her chair in.</p><p>“Where’re you going?” Eddie asked, more than a little panicked at the thought of being so suddenly left alone.</p><p>“To get this morning’s copy of the Bugle. If Pete is a contributor, his name will be in it somewhere. Stay here with Jamie.”</p><p>Speaking of Jamie, she’d finally finished choosing her breakfast bounty just as Felicia stopped by the register to pay for it all. From the huge platter Jamie waddled over to the table with, Eddie guessed that it would have cost more than his usual paycheck. Just how the hell was one little girl gonna eat all of that?!</p><p><b> <em>“She won’t,” </em> </b> Symby suggested, drooling from her hidden mouth. <b> <em> “Which means we can have the leftovers. Or take some when she isn’t looking! Think about it, Eddie!”</em> </b></p><p>Despite Symby’s goading, Eddie had no intention of stealing right off his multiversal daughter’s plate- not so much taking candy from a baby as taking a small, hopeful distraction away from a kid who desperately needed one. He <em> was </em> hungry, though...</p><p>“You want some pancakes with your syrup?” he asked as Jamie slathered her first plate with sticky maple sap.</p><p>“Sleeper needs sugar,” she said just as she shoved three whole pancakes into her mouth. Eddie didn’t know whether to be disgusted or impressed.</p><p>“Just don’t let Felicia know you’ve got an alien in you,” he sighed. “Or anyone else.”</p><p>Jamie nodded as she somehow swallowed the mass in her mouth without choking, and went right in for another helping with whipped cream. “Where’d she go?”</p><p>“Down the street. She’ll be back.”</p><p>With her pancakes finished in just a few bites, Jamie promptly moved onto devouring a cupcake. “Why can’t I tell her you’re my dad?”</p><p>Eddie had gotten away with a half-assed answer last night, but now he knew Jamie would want a proper explanation. Or at least one that would convince her letting Felicia know was the worst possible thing she could do.</p><p>"Because… me and Symby haven’t been very good to her, in the past,” he told her slowly. “She doesn’t like us.”</p><p>Jamie looked down at her cupcake, like she didn’t know what to say to that. Maybe thinking of asking <em> why </em>Felicia didn’t like them, thinking of whether or not she wanted to know. Her parents probably liked each other at the very least. Why else would they have a kid together?</p><p>“Why was she talking to you?” Jamie eventually asked, and that was a question Eddie could answer without the risk of ruining her day before it had even begun.</p><p>“We were talking about how to get you back home. We’re gonna see a guy called Peter Parker.”</p><p>Jamie’s expression suddenly became serious, though with her mouth stuffed full she looked like a hamster with its cheeks puffed out. “So Uncle Pete <em> is </em>around here,” she said once the cupcake was down her throat.</p><p>There was that word again, ’uncle’. Jamie would only call him that if he was some sort of family friend… or if he <em> was </em>family. Eddie steadied himself with a long drink of coffee.</p><p>“He’s not <em> really </em> your uncle, is he?” he asked.</p><p>“No.” Jamie shook her head, and Eddie let himself feel some relief. “But Mom says he likes when I call him that. Is Auntie MJ here too? I play a lot with their daughter Annie-May.”</p><p>Eddie blinked, setting his cup back down on the table. The other Pete had a daughter too? And they were <em> friends </em>? This mystery bizarro world was starting to sound like some elaborate prank the more he heard about it.</p><p>“The Peter we know doesn’t have a kid,” was all he could say to answer Jamie. “I don’t think he does, at least…” With how many years Pete has spent as a career superhero and how smart he was supposed to be, he should’ve learned to keep his family top secret by now. Felicia would know more than Eddie about that, at least (though Eddie doubted she’d tell him much of it). And anything Jamie could have told him about her world’s Peter, her family, wouldn’t be much use all the way over here.</p><p>Though, there was <em> one </em>thing she could tell him. Not something useful, just something that he felt like he had to know before it drove him more crazy than he was used to.</p><p>“Jamie, are your parents married? In your world?”</p><p>She was in the middle of biting through something filled with chocolate, something Eddie didn’t recognise (but it still looked delicious). “Uh huh. They got married after I was born. I was the flower girl. But then on the day uncle Cletus kidnapped me and Sleeper-”</p><p>Eddie picked a bad time to drink the last of his cooling coffee. Most of it ended up back in the cup as he spluttered, and his hand spasmed as Symby recoiled along his nervous system.</p><p>“<em> Uncle </em>Cletus?!”</p><p>“And Dad was <em> really </em> mad,” Jamie went on, not even noticing Eddie’s shock. “He and Goo Mom chased after him, and they slammed through a whole load of cars and it was like <em> BWOOOSH </em>-”, she brought her hands together to mimic an impact, “-and he was like, “get away from her, you-!” and then he said a bad word.” She sat back so her theatrical retelling could sink in, but Eddie hadn’t even heard most of it.</p><p>“...<em>Uncle</em> Cletus?!?!” he hissed once more. At this rate, having Peter be his brother would actually be preferable.</p><p>“That’s what you- what Dad said I should call him,” Jamie explained, looking guilty as she caught herself almost naming Eddie something he wasn’t. “We go visit him sometimes.”</p><p>“Visit him <em> where </em>?”</p><p>“Uh…” She looked up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to remember. “Ravencroft, I think it’s called. It’s a big scary place. But they said they’ll let him out if he behaves.”</p><p>‘<em> Cletus. Behaving. Fucking hilarious, kid.’ </em>  Eddie didn’t think it was funny at all, of course. Thinking of that psychopath in any case was enough to give him a waking nightmare… but things were different where she was from, he had to remind himself. Different enough that he and Black Cat were a married couple who apparently held playdates with Spider-Man. So maybe Cletus wasn’t so bad over there. Jamie was still alive and in one piece after being supposedly kidnapped, after all.</p><p><b> <em>“Maybe Carnage doesn’t even exist,” </em> </b>Symby added for him, something for both of them to cling to. He hoped she was right. For Jamie’s sake, oh God he hoped. </p><p>He didn’t want to think about that anymore- he was starting to feel sick despite his gnawing hunger. Carnage had that effect on anyone who managed to survive him. Change the subject, quickly, before you learn anything else you’d rather not know.</p><p>Though Eddie had briefly been left in catatonic shock by Jamie’s reveal, there was still one thing he managed to catch. She’d seen him and Symby together. She knew at least a little bit about what symbiotes were, what his and her own could do.</p><p>“So… you know about Venom?” he asked quietly, lowering his head just to be sure he wouldn’t be overheard. “The thing me and Symby can turn into?”</p><p>Jamie nodded as she dismantled another cupcake. “Course I do. Daddy always did that trick when I was little. He’d stretch his mouth open really wide-”, she used two fingers at the edges of her own mouth to pull it open, “-wike thise.” Then she released her lips, and they snapped back into their rightful places. “And his tongue would make shapes if I asked. And then Mom would get mad at him for drooling all over the kitchen floor.”</p><p>
  <b> <em>“I do not drool. Not that much, at least…”</em> </b>
</p><p>Eddie almost smiled, stopping himself at the last second. He’d start feeling jealous if he wasn’t careful.</p><p>“So he’s good to you?” he pressed. “You… like being with him?”</p><p>She shrugged with a mouthful of cake. “He’s my Dad. Of course I do. You ask weird questions, Eddie. You should know all that cause he’s just you.”</p><p>His mouth was open to say something, but he quickly forgot what it was. </p><p>“...You really think I’m like him?” He knew why he was surprised, shocked even to hear something like that. The Eddie that raised this girl must have been someone better than him, someone who was really only him in name and symbiote. Or Jamie just didn’t know either of them well enough to tell the difference between them.</p><p>“You <em> are </em>him,” she insisted nonetheless. “Just… not really my Dad. I know that. Just like how… Felicia isn’t really my Mom. I’m not stupid.” She looked down at her empty plate as she said it, and Eddie knew she was dangerously close to remembering how far away from home she was. His hand, not entirely under his control, reached out to her, not quite touching but close enough to offer some silent comfort. </p><p>“I know you’re not.” Both not stupid, and not really his daughter. “But… we’re both still gonna try and help you. So don’t worry. You’ll be back home as soon as we find someone who knows what the hell is going on.”</p><p>Jamie blinked several times, like she was trying to fight back tears. “You mean Uncle Pete?”</p><p>“Yeah. Hopefully.” Cause ‘Uncle’ Pete was the only real lead they had to figuring anything out. If he didn’t know how to fix it, then who would?</p><p>Not a question Eddie wanted to have to answer. Especially not while struggling on an empty stomach. He looked at Jamie indulging herself, and Symby growling in his belly was too much to take.</p><p>“Can I have one of those?” He pointed to one of the few cupcakes left, and was so grateful when Jamie nodded. Symby’s tongue almost leapt up his throat to grab the treat for herself, but he held her back as he joined Jamie’s feast. By the time the tin-ring of a bell by the door finally announced Felicia’s return, he’d already gone through a plate and was trying to hide the evidence as she approached.</p><p>“You were right, Eddie.” She took the seat next to Jamie and set down the newspaper under her arm in front of Eddie. “He’s the science editor.”</p><p>Eddie pulled the newspaper towards him, looking at the bottom where Felicia pointed to. And there he was, ‘Peter Parker’. Quite a promotion from selling his selfies. </p><p>“So what do we do with this?” Eddie asked. </p><p>“I say we go right to the source.” Felicia pointed out the window, in the general direction of the infamous Bugle building. “See if anyone there knows where we can find him.”</p><p>Simple enough, then. Track down Spider-Man, ambush him before he can run away and have him do all the hard work for them. All Eddie had to do was keep Jamie under watch. And Sleeper. And make sure Felicia never found out who he really was.</p><p>Simple. So, so simple... </p><p>“We’re gonna finish eating first though, right?” Jamie asked through a mouthful of chocolate.</p><p>Felicia looked down at her, the several empty cake wrappers on empty plates, and helped herself to one of the few left untouched. “Well, of course.” </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“D’you think Mom will buy us more candy if we ask?”</em></span>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie didn’t answer, mostly because she couldn’t without having Felicia ask questions about who she was talking to. Eddie didn’t want her knowing about Sleeper, so Jamie wasn’t gonna go and ruin everything just to keep her big brother quiet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even so, it felt weird having to ignore him. Even in school she could talk to him by writing messages in the margins of her notebooks, or finding somewhere quiet at lunch where no-one would notice her whispering to herself. She’d rather have been stuck in school than here, at not-home with her not-parents who weren’t even friends with each other…</span>
</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"><em>“Right… she’s not Mom. Not really.”</em></span></b><span> Jamie was never sure if Sleeper could actually read her mind (he never gave a straight answer when she asked), but he might as well have been able to.</span> <span>She was getting used to not seeing them as Mom and Dad, at least. She’d be less likely to make a mistake in front of Felicia and accidentally call Eddie what he clearly didn’t want to be.</span></p><p>
  <span>That was the best she could do; try and make this whole thing easier on them both, just as they tried to make it easy for her and Sleeper. She was an inconvenience to both of them, a daughter only in her own mind. It was nice of them to try and hide it, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew they wanted to be rid of her just as much as she wanted to go back home, so they could go back to not knowing she existed. Eddie wouldn’t have to worry about hiding what he was from Felicia, and Felicia wouldn’t have to force herself to be her Mom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It helped that Jamie had spent her whole life keeping secrets; knowing Uncle Pete and Auntie MJ were Spider-Man and Spinnerette, knowing her parents were the once-infamous Venom and Black Cat, knowing that no-one else could ever find out any of that...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though, speaking of Uncle Pete, she wasn’t sure if she was excited to see him in this world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How d’you know if he’s even here today?” Eddie was at her left, lagging a little behind as Felicia lead the way into the elevator ahead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t,” Felicia answered as she pressed a floor button Jamie couldn’t reach. “Which is why we’re here to ask.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apparently this building was home to the Daily Bugle newspaper, though there was no sign outside that Jamie could see. She’d recognised the name from back home, from the stories Uncle Pete had told about working there, but she’d never been inside the place before. She didn’t know what to expect when the elevator opened- big printing presses? People running back and forth like they were in a race? The scary boss shouting at them as soon as they walked in?- though she was a little disappointed to see nothing more exciting than a single desk with a receptionist seated at it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Welcome to the Daily Bugle, how can I help you today?” Jamie could only just see over the edge of the front desk, though she was happy to go unnoticed for once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We need to see the science editor, Peter Parker,” Felicia said. “Is he in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll check for you in just a moment, ma’am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“What d’you think Uncle Peter will be like in this world?” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Sleeper asked, though even if she could have answered Jamie didn’t know what she would have said. She wouldn’t know anything about this world’s Peter until she saw him. While she was stranded here, she’d learned not to have expectations of people she’d once known. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘He might not even be Spider-Man around here. There might not even </span>
  </em>
  <span>be </span>
  <em>
    <span>a Spider-Man!’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>Now that was a weird thing to think about… as far as she’d always known, there was no New York City without Spider-Man. That was what Uncle Peter had said, though he’d always added that Spider-Man could be anyone who helped others. In his own words, Venom was a Spider-Man (though Dad always got mad if someone compared him to Pete). Mom was a Spider-Man too, and Auntie MJ, and there was at least one in every parallel universe. By that rule, there had to be one in this universe. But if it wasn’t Pete…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her head was starting to hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You alright, Jamie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked up at Eddie, blinking her dry eyes, and found that he’d reached for her hand. Or maybe she had reached for his, and that’s why he was concerned. She didn’t remember doing that, but there was a black tendril wrapped around one of her fingers that connected to the one around Eddie’s. Sleeper knew he had to stay hidden, but no-one would notice him there, and though they couldn’t hear Symby they could feel her reaching out- physically, emotionally. An extension of Eddie that voiced what he, for some reason, couldn’t, that gave Jamie’s palm a gentle squeeze. She still knew she was a burden, an unexpected complication in Eddie and Symby’s lives, but she could forget that for a moment as she nodded and squeezed back with Sleeper. They were alright. They’d be fine. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she looked to Felicia, finding her watching them both with a strange expression. Curiosity, or indifference… or maybe jealousy? Before Jamie could decide which one was most likely, Felicia looked away towards the door behind the desk that was opening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Peter, just in time!” The receptionist craned her neck to face the person emerging from the door. “There’s people here to see you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To both Jamie and Sleeper’s pleasant surprise, this world’s Peter looked almost identical to the one she’d always known. The only real difference was that this one had less wrinkles and grey hair. If he was smart like the other Peter too, then they’d be home before the end of the day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felicia? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Eddie?! </span>
  </em>
  <span>What the hell are-?!” Peter’s wide eyes went from the adults to Jamie, and they narrowed as shock turned to confusion. “Why is there a kid here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Long story, Pete.“ Felicia moved away from the desk and herded them all towards a window at the side of the room, forcing Peter to go out of earshot of any eavesdroppers. “We need your help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What… kind of help?” Peter was still looking down at Jamie as if she would turn into a monster if he dared look away. Maybe he could see Sleeper somehow, or he was trying to match Jamie’s own intense stare. She was just trying to see if there were any clues that he was Spider-Man after all, but all she found were heavy bags under his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The science-nerd kind,” Eddie elaborated, as if that really explained anything at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is there somewhere we can talk about it in private?” Felicia asked, laying a hand on Jamie’s shoulder absently- that was what Jamie assumed, at least, since she didn’t squeeze like Eddie had done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure I want to be anywhere alone with the likes of you two.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For God’s sake, Pete, we’re not gonna kill you in front of a child.” Though Jamie couldn’t see her, she could practically hear Felicia rolling her eyes. “In fact, the kid is the whole reason we’re here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> she, anyway? Are you okay, kid? Do you need help?” Peter was kneeling down now, taking hold of Jamie’s other shoulder and searching her face for any sign of distress- or maybe symbiote, if he could somehow tell Sleeper was around...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We haven’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>kidnapped </span>
  </em>
  <span>her, if that’s what you’re scared of,” Felicia scoffed, and Jamie could feel her almost pulling her away from Peter. “She’s part of the long story, now are you gonna keep standing here clogging up the hallway or are you gonna come with us so you can hear it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peter looked from Felicia to Jamie, then had one cautious glance towards Eddie before he stood up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just… gimme a sec.” He disappeared back through the door he’d come from, ignoring the quizzical stare from the receptionist. Felicia only now released Jamie, like she’d been expecting Peter to really try and take her away, and Eddie let out a heavy sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“Well, what now?” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Neither of the adults said anything, though Jamie wasn’t sure if there was anything to be said just yet. She coughed like she’d seen Mom do when things got awkward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uncle Pete looks really tired,” she mentioned. That was another thing that set this Peter apart from the one she knew; he wasn’t just a little weary, he looked exhausted, like he shouldn’t have been walking around at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Eddie sighed again, this time a subtle one under his breath. “Saving the city every other week’ll do that to you.” Then he yelped when Felicia punched him in the arm. “Ow! What was that for!?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If Pete is the Spider in her world,” Felicia hissed close to his ear, “then she probably isn’t supposed to know that, idiot!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie probably wasn’t supposed to hear that either, and she might not have if Sleeper didn’t make eavesdropping so easy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So he’s a hero here too?” She whispered like she always did whenever Pete’s better known self was brought up. “Like D-” The forbidden D-word was caught just in time, and she scolded herself for almost messing up after doing so well to keep Eddie’s secret. “Like… Auntie MJ?” she corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia gave Eddie a narrow glare, but her gaze softened before it reached Jamie. “It’s a secret, though. You can’t tell anyone, alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“Well, duh.” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>As usual, Sleeper gave a voice to her thoughts.</span>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em> “You’re almost ten, of course you know that!” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>But even if this Felicia wasn’t her Mom, Jamie knew better than to talk back, so she just nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you say Mary Jane was a hero too?” Felicia asked after a moment, and Jamie realised that was the very first time someone other than herself had mentioned MJ. Maybe she’d get to meet her before Pete sent her back home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mm-hm. Can I ask Uncle Pete about her?” If this world’s Pete was almost identical, then maybe MJ was as well. Felicia gritted her teeth though, before pressing her lips together tightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… wouldn’t do that,” she advised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s just say she’s a bit of a sensitive subject for him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Great, yet another thing Jamie wasn’t allowed to mention. This was gonna give her another headache that not even Sleeper could muffle. At least Felicia’s warning came just in time as Peter returned, somehow looking even more exhausted now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Follow me.” He took them all back into the elevator, going one floor above that opened into a room full of mostly-empty office cubicles. Then he hurriedly brought them to a barren room at the side, probably used for small meetings since there was only a table with some chairs gathered around it. Jamie helped herself to one of them while the adults stayed standing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Make it quick,” Pete said with his back against the door, “I only get fifteen minutes for lunch.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you insist.” Felicia crossed her arms over her chest and sat on the edge of the table. “Jamie here is from another universe, and she needs her </span>
  <em>
    <span>Uncle Pete’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> help to get back home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peter blinked, looking at Jamie like he really </span>
  <em>
    <span>did </span>
  </em>
  <span>believe she’d turn into a monster this time. “Oooo...kay… so what the hell is she doing with you two?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cause Eddie’s the one who found her,” Felicia explained, “and… in her world, I’m her mom.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now Peter didn’t blink at all. In fact, his eyes looked like they were permanently stuck open from how wide they’d gotten as they darted between Felicia and Jamie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Oh…” He coughed, making Jamie wonder why that was a thing adults seemed to automatically do when things were awkward. But it didn’t feel like that to her- what did it matter to this Peter if this Felicia was someone’s Mom? Adults were weird in any universe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I see the resemblance…” He coughed again, this time trying to cover up a crack in his voice. “I’m her </span>
  <em>
    <span>uncle?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s what Mom always called you,” Jamie said, while Eddie made a sound behind her near the window. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better than Uncle </span>
  <em>
    <span>Cletus </span>
  </em>
  <span>at least,” he murmured, quiet enough that only Jamie heard. This Eddie seemed to have a problem with just about every one of her ‘uncles’, which made her wonder why she was allowed near any of them in the first place. Meanwhile Peter dragged a hand across his forehead as he sighed, taking the free seat beside Jamie to face her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, Jamie… do you remember anything about how you got here? Anything strange that happened at home beforehand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, but…” She swung her legs under her, gripping the sides of the plastic seat as she bit her lip, trying to think of anything that would help.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“We should probably tell him about the dream we had,” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Sleeper suggested, though Jamie doubted it would do any good. What did imagining her family fighting the Sinister Six have anything to do with waking up on another world?</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“No, not that one,” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Sleeper pressed. </span>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“The one that came after.”</em></span>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>But there hadn’t been another dream… not one that she could remember. Not until now, when Sleeper decided to stop hiding it from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That </span>
  </em>
  <span>one… the scary one. The one that made her feel like she was being stolen away, that she’d told Sleeper to help her forget about. It didn’t happen often, and it was just a dream, so she never told her parents about it. But Sleeper could never tell when it was coming, and when it did there was nothing he could do to stop it other than wake her up before it got too bad. Before… before she was taken away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But this time, he hadn’t woken her up quickly enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I... I was asleep,” Jamie said quietly. “At first it was a nice dream, but… then I think I had a nightmare.” Her grip on the edge of the chair tightened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of nightmare?” Peter spoke softly, matching Jamie’s own hush.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The same one I always have… something comes after me. He… He’s a big tall man, and he’s all dark except on his chest where it’s red, and when he caught-” In her rush to get it out she almost said ‘us’, having to gulp to correct herself. “When he caught me, he tried to pull me away somewhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Somewhere?” Felicia sounded far away, though Jamie knew she was sitting with her on the other side of Peter.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“Somewhere bad,” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Sleeper answered silently.</span>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em> “Somewhere no-one will find us…”</em></span>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>“I tried to get away,” Jamie said. “I usually do. But then I woke up here.” She looked down at her lap, and with a jolt of panic she realised the tips of her fingers were sharp and green; Sleeper leaking out of her nails to dig thick gouges in the plastic chair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How often does it happen, Jamie?” It was Eddie who asked this time, standing close by, giving her time to pull Sleeper back in before anyone noticed him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not much. Not enough that I get scared.” She shrugged just to prove that she really was brave. “But it’s the same every time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie looked down at her, clearly not believing that she wasn’t scared. “I don’t think that was just a nightmare.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For once, Brock, I actually agree with you,” Pete added, leaving Jamie even more scared than she already was.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“What do they mean?”</em></span>
  </b>
  <span> Sleeper asked her, as if she could possibly know anything he didn’t already know.</span>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em> “How is it not ‘just’ a nightmare?” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Before she could ask for both of them, Felicia swooped in first with her own questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does it mean, then? Can you get her back where she belongs?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peter sighed, sitting up straight and combing his fingers back through his hair. “Well, regardless of what it means, it’s been a while since I’ve been dimension-hopping. It’s not exactly a hobby. Even if I was more confident with it, I don’t have any kind of device that can send you straight from this world to another.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Neither did my Uncle Pete, but that’s never stopped him before.’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>In most of the stories he told Jamie he’d either walk through a shining portal or be tagging along on someone else’s adventure, or whatever he’d use to travel through the universes would conveniently break when he got back home (though, she sometimes wondered if that was just a lie to stop her and Annie-May from trying to find one of them…).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But just as her hope of getting home was about to die, something dawned on Peter’s face; a new light in his otherwise weary eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I might know someone who does, though.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone you can trust?” Felicia said it like it was some inside joke, and Peter reacted like it was a bad one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Believe it or not, I do still have some of those. And she’s nearby. I’ll see if she has what I need-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And we’ll be coming with you, of course,” Felicia told him as he reached for the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Er… why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cause if this is some dangerous experimental thing that rearranges atoms or whatever, then I’ll be the one who decides if my daughter will get sent hurtling through space and time with it.” Felicia pointed to Jamie as she stood up from her slightly-dented chair, and Jamie couldn’t help but feel a flutter in her stomach that wasn’t just Sleeper roiling around in their shared unease. In just that moment, she could almost believe that this Felicia really </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>her mom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ditto,” Eddie added, before immediately realising the implications of that word with what Felicia had said. “I-I mean… she’s my responsibility too. And I have nothing better to do right now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peter looked to both of them, then to Jamie like he wanted her to object for him. But she wasn’t about to send her not-parents away- even if Peter was the smart one, these were the only people in this world that she was somewhat related to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” Pete sighed in defeat. “I guess. Jamie’s been through enough turmoil as it is, I suppose. Just don’t steal anything on the way there. Or eat anyone.” He was through the door before either of the adults could protest their innocence- but from the yell that came right through the wall, he’d probably wished he’d stayed behind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Parker! You better have been busy writing up tomorrow’s column on the Stark Expo! I want it written, proofed, edited and ready to publish by the end of-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m right on it, J.J, don’t you worry!” Jamie followed behind Felicia and Eddie, seeing Peter trying to pacify another man that somehow towered over him despite them both being roughly the same height. “That’s a nice tie, is that new? Goes well with the mustache, you’re a fashion icon as always.” Pete patted the red-faced man on the shoulder before escaping to the elevator, slipping in through the doors just as they opened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just get on it, Parker!” the man ordered, pointing at Peter before noticing Jamie standing in front of him. “And who told you you could bring kids in here?! This is a newspaper, not a-!” The closing doors of the elevator cut off whatever rant was coming next. About half-way to the ground floor, Jamie realised why the loud man seemed familiar to her. She looked up towards Pete as he exhaled in relief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was that Mr Jameson?” He’d been the star of most of Uncle Pete’s old newspaper stories, and from how he’d been described Jamie had always been glad she’d never met him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure was,” Pete answered. She pouted at that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s smaller than I thought he’d be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span class="Sleeper"><em>“And there’s no way he could break a window just by yelling at it,” </em></span>
  </b>
  <span>Sleeper added, also thoroughly disappointed. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Felicia could tell that Peter didn’t trust them- hell, if he did then she would have suspected he was being remote-controlled by Dr Octopus again. But so long as they had Jamie, they were more or less ‘protected’ from his insufferable need to do the right thing no matter what. In this case, at least sending a little girl back home safe and sound took priority over locking up two infamous criminals. And, for all his flaws, Felicia knew that Peter was their best chance in figuring out how to get Jamie to where she was needed most. </p><p><em> ‘Though maybe I should have tried making him believe she was </em> his <em> kid for a while.’ </em>She thought it as a joke, even though she was relieved to know that it wasn’t the case. The look on his face wouldn’t have been worth the implications, nor the fact that he probably wouldn’t even have believed Jamie was from a different world if Felicia pulled something like that.</p><p>Besides, it wouldn’t have lasted long. Jamie would have made it clear that her Peter was just a family friend, even if just that was almost impossible for Felicia to comprehend. Unless this other Felicia never felt anything for the other Pete. Unless she only had eyes for one man, who happened to be Jamie’s father… whoever the hell he’d turn out to be. Felicia wanted- no, <em> needed </em>to know who he was before Jamie was gone, but she’d have to wait a little longer until she could get the kid by herself. It wasn’t the kind of knowledge she wanted shared with the likes of Eddie, after all. Whether or not it was a surprise, whether or not it said something about her or nothing at all, it was… personal. She might end up wishing she didn’t know, but regardless she still needed to. </p><p>“My friend’s place is pretty far away in the Bronx,” Peter said as he herded them onto a lower floor of the Bugle building. “But we can avoid most traffic from the rooftops through here.” He opened a door that led outside, onto a flat roof a few storeys up that must have been used for maintenance of some kind, and he seemed confused as to why Eddie and Felicia didn’t follow him out there. That was their natural habitat, after all, when roaming the streets was too dangerous or inconvenient. But <em> not </em> when they had a kid tagging along. </p><p>“Um, Pete?” Felicia pointed a raised eyebrow at him, just waiting for the penny to drop.</p><p>“What?” Peter stood with his hands on his hips, looking from Felicia to Eddie and then, finally, to Jamie stood between them. “Oh… right. Baby on board. Uh…” He scratched at his head. “How are you with heights, Jamie?”</p><p>The girl was opening her mouth to answer when Felicia grabbed her, pulling her close to her side.</p><p>“Oh no no no, you are <em> not </em>webbing across the city with my daughter!” Felicia may not have been her real mom, but she at least knew what horrendous parenting looked like and she was sure ‘unsecured zipping between skyscrapers’ ranked up there with ‘hiring Rhino as a babysitter’. </p><p>“But Uncle Pete lets me ride on his back all the time,” Jamie protested, though she didn’t try to break from Felicia’s protective grasp.</p><p>“See?” Peter added, as if his other self being irresponsible was all the proof needed to convince Felicia. “Jamie’s up for it!”</p><p>“What if you drop her?!” Felicia snapped. “Or she loses her grip?!”</p><p>“Well, the only other option is a cab, and it’ll cost like twenty dollars for the whole trip from here.”</p><p>Felicia released Jamie as her arms went limp, and her eyes narrowed in shallow disdain. <em> That </em> was his concern? Having to spend money to ensure a safe journey? But, of course, she kept forgetting other people couldn’t just pickpocket a wallet or sell old art pieces if they needed cash. They had to <em> work </em>for a living, not just for a hobby. Felicia couldn’t imagine such a life.</p><p>“And how much <em> do </em> you have on you, Pete?” she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. If he had the money on him, like hell was she gonna let him keep it so he could get her daughter killed.</p><p>Peter opened his mouth, then checked his pockets with a guilty look that revealed he already knew exactly how little he really had. “...Five dollars.”</p><p>Felicia scoffed, then turned to the other man standing behind her. “And you, Eddie?”</p><p>He looked left and right as he scratched behind his neck, his own guilty tic betraying itself. “I… didn’t think I’d need any today.”</p><p>Felicia’s glare went between the two men, and she seriously considered just taking off with Jamie all by herself- these two couldn’t even look after <em> themselves </em>, let alone a little girl. “Are you for real?! How do two grown men not have twenty dollars between them?”</p><p>“I’m saving for dinner tonight...”</p><p>“Symbiotes don’t give you many pockets…”</p><p>Unbelievable. It was like having three kids to look after instead of just one.</p><p>“Fine.” Felicia sighed as she turned to head back inside the building. “We’ll walk if we have to.”</p><p>“Wait, Felicia.” Eddie caught her at the door, his hand grabbing her arm to hold her in place. It wasn’t an aggressive move, but Felicia could feel his true strength in his grip… and it was enough to scare her. But then he released her just as suddenly, as if he just remembered how dangerous he could be. How dangerous he <em> was </em>, at any given moment. Was that guilt in his eyes as they looked away from Felicia, towards Jamie?</p><p>“I’ll carry her,” he said, and Felicia blinked as she remembered Eddie could do just about everything Spider-Man could do (including pissing her off in record time, though they both seemed to be on good behavior nowadays).</p><p>“And how is <em> that </em>any safer?” she accused.</p><p>“Unlike webbing, a symbiote can think for itself. We’ll know if she starts slipping. And you already know how hard it is to get out of a symbiote once it has you.” </p><p>“I’ll vouch for that,” Peter said with more than a hint of regret. He was actually <em> agreeing </em>with Eddie; his arch nemesis, his greatest threat, the source of a thousand nightmares? Christ, now Felicia knew exactly how Jamie felt. Like she’d just been dumped into a completely different universe. She looked over at the kid as she moved closer to Eddie, watching her stare down at her shoes as she idly kicked the gravel on the roof.</p><p>“I also know,” Felicia hissed into Eddie’s ear, “that Venom will scare the shit out of her.”</p><p>Eddie’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked a little disappointed as he smiled. Before Felicia could even start to decipher what an expression like that was supposed to mean, it was covered by a surge of black slime that quickly formed the familiar face that had graced many a front page of many a New York newspaper.</p><p><b>“Jamie.” </b>Venom turned his drooling maw towards the poor kid he was about to traumatise. But Jamie wasn’t scared at all. She didn’t even flinch when she saw Venom facing her, which was more than could be said for Pete who looked like he was about to jump off the roof in trembling terror. In fact, she was <em>smiling </em>at him. </p><p>
  <b>“Do you think we’re scary?”</b>
</p><p>“Nuh uh,” Jamie answered with a cheerful shake of her head.</p><p>
  <b>“Do you think we’ll drop you?”</b>
</p><p>“Nope!”</p><p>Venom turned back to Felicia with a grin that could only be described as disgustingly smug- and that was <em> without </em> the saliva-stained fangs adding to the horrible scene. She wanted to slap him for it, but she wasn’t about to get goo all over her hand. What the fuck did these two- <em> three, </em> she only just remembered the symbiote- do while she was away getting the newspaper? Or, hell, when Jamie had spent a whole night in Venom’s company? How the <em> fuck </em>was Jamie not screaming right now? Maybe Venom just wasn’t much of a threat back home for her?</p><p>Or maybe Jamie was just a bit of a weird kid. Which made sense. Felicia considered herself a little weird, after all. But she <em> knew </em>something else was going on. Something that went beyond just unknown universal discrepancies. She gave Venom a glare that told him just that, that she’d be asking questions as soon as Peter was out of earshot. And he just kept grinning. Maybe all those teeth crammed into his mouth made it impossible for him not to. Didn’t make it any less infuriating, though.</p><p>Felicia looked back to Jamie, who was now hopping from one foot to the other in barley-concealed excitement. Clearly she was fully prepared to fly across the city, no matter the risk. </p><p>“You sure you’re okay with this, Jamie?” Felicia asked, with an already defeated sigh.</p><p>“I wanna go the fun way!” she insisted. “Please, Felicia?” She looked up at her with pleading eyes, and Felicia knew that if she said no she’d never forgive herself for the disappointment that would follow.</p><p>“Alright. You’re just lucky I always have grappling hooks on me.” Felicia pulled her jacket off and tied the sleeves around her waist, revealing the hook mechanisms around her wrists. Even if she wasn’t in her usual leather gear, she always liked to be prepared for a potential job. “Let’s just get going already.” </p><p>As Peter fitted his Spider-Man mask on and Venom picked up a giggling Jamie, Felicia gave them each one more glare that carried a simple, easily understood threat. </p><p>‘<em> If she falls, you’re both dead.’ </em></p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <b>xx</b>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>“Do you two <em> really </em>need to follow me in?” Peter stood outside the third-floor apartment door, after a (thankfully) incident-free trip across half the city, clearly uncomfortable with having Felicia and Eddie there with him. Jamie stood between the two, her hair a wind-blown mess but her body otherwise unharmed, on her tip-toes with her hands behind her back.</p><p>“Of course we do,” Eddie said, massive arms crossed firm over his chest. Even without the symbiote over him, he was an intimidating sight all on his own.</p><p>“For all we know,” Felicia added, “you’re really trying to lead us into a police ambush.”</p><p>“You really think so little of me, Felicia?” Pete asked, a joking plea that fell on deaf ears. Felicia didn’t even dignify it with a response, nothing more than a hard glare. </p><p>“Right. Point taken.” Peter finally put his hand on the door handle, turning away from Felicia’s simmering disapproval. “Just… let me warn her she’s about to have guests.”</p><p>“Her?” Felicia’s question lingered unanswered as Peter slipped inside by himself. It wasn’t that she hadn’t expected a woman to have all the multiversal know-how, nor that she didn’t think Peter had plenty of female friends. So why was she surprised? Why was she...</p><p>“Feeling jealous, Felicia?” Eddie seemed to immediately realise his mistake as Felicia whirled on him, her glare as lethal as ever. </p><p>“Of <em> what </em>?” She only stopped it from turning into a snarl for Jamie’s sake, but it was still enough to make Eddie flinch.</p><p>“N...nothing. Nothing at all.” He coughed and made a point of staring at the wall as Jamie reached up to tug on Felicia’s sleeve.</p><p>“Who do you think Uncle Pete’s friend is?” she asked, with all the innocence of her mere nine years of existence.</p><p>“Not anyone I would know,” Felicia said, her tight voice betraying the fact that she <em> hoped </em>it wasn’t someone she knew. Or maybe she did. Which would be better or worse? God, why did it even fucking matter?!</p><p>“Cindy?” Peter’s voice could be heard through the closed door, as if taunting her. “You home?” And then, completing Felicia’s personal torture, he was quickly answered. </p><p>“Pete! I wasn’t expecting you! I thought you were working today?”</p><p>“Yeah, I… I <em> was, </em>but-”</p><p>“What’d I tell you about letting me know before you show up! I need time to make myself presentable!”</p><p>“Actually, I… uh, there’s… people with me.”</p><p>“Oh. Well, invite them in! You’re the only visitor I ever get, it’ll be nice to have some <em> normal </em> company for a change.”</p><p>“That doesn’t sound like Auntie MJ,” Jamie said, her suspicion mirroring Felicia’s own.</p><p>“But she <em> does </em>sound familiar.” Felicia could swear she’d heard it before, but she didn’t recognise the name Cindy. Had she robbed her before? That was all she could think of before Peter reappeared, edging around the door with the practised stealth of a guy well used to sneaking out the next morning. </p><p>“Friend of yours, <em> Pete </em>?” Eddie asked, deliberate emphasis on the familiarity Cindy had given him. </p><p>“Friend with <em> benefits </em>, maybe?” Felicia asked, carefully covering Jamie’s ears under the guise of smoothing out her tangled hair.</p><p>“<em> You </em> of all people aren’t allowed to judge me for this, Felicia,” Pete said as he pointed at her, “and <em> you </em>are in a relationship with alien slime that has abandonment issues,” he finished with his finger jabbing at Eddie. </p><p>“Whatever.” Felicia finished fixing Jamie’s hair and rolled her eyes as she pushed past Peter. “So long as she knows how to get Jamie back home-”</p><p>She walked through the entrance hall, and immediately found herself thrown against the wall. Her arm was stuck to the surface by a mound of white webbing that she couldn’t tear through, that could only have come from one person. She looked over her shoulder at him.</p><p>“Peter, what the fuck-?!”</p><p>“Not one more step, Cat!” Cindy’s voice called her attention towards the living room, and Felicia found the dark-haired other woman crouched on the couch with her wrist aimed like a gun. </p><p>“Peter,” Cindy said slowly, not taking her eyes off Felicia’s bewildered expression as Pete entered the scene, “why did you bring Black Cat to my apartment?”</p><p>Peter looked just as confused as Felicia as his eyes flitted between the two women. “Because we, she… she needs your help! Why did <em> you </em>just attack her?!”</p><p>“Because she’s only here to get revenge on <em> me </em>!” Cindy insisted, still brandishing her web-loaded wrist in a threat. </p><p>“For <em> what?”  </em></p><p>“Uh, yeah,” Felicia concurred, wondering where the hell Eddie was as she tried to dig her free fingers into the webbing. “I don’t even know who you are.” Hell, she wondered how Cindy even recognised her as Black Cat- the white hair wasn’t <em> that </em>much of a giveaway, was it?</p><p>“Wha-? What do you mean you don’t know?!” Now Cindy lowered her arms, jumping down from her couch so she could flail them around in disbelief. “Hell<em> o </em>? Silk? Cindy Moon?”</p><p>Felicia shook her head, genuinely not knowing what the hell she was talking about.</p><p>“The <em> other </em>Spider-Woman?” Cindy pressed. “You kidnapped a girl to try and get to me? Asked me to work for you and I only agreed to go undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D.?”</p><p>“I had a <em> lot </em> of desperate people working for me, sweetie, you can’t expect me to remember all of them,” Felicia informed her, which was at least true. “But, now that you mention it, that <em> does </em> ring a bell. Kind of.” She wasn’t the Spider-Woman in red, was she? No, Felicia didn’t remember doing anything to piss <em> her </em> off. Wait, the hair! She had it hanging loose, no mask to cram it all under. Ah, yes. It was coming back to her.</p><p>Cindy, meanwhile, looked just a little offended at being so easily forgotten. “You’re not here to… enact righteous vengeance on me or whatever?”</p><p>“I will be if you don’t get this damn webbing off.” Felicia pulled against it once more, but her arm was well and truly trapped. Cindy pouted and muttered insincere apologies as she and Peter tried to tear Felicia free.</p><p>“Jamie says she needs to go to the bath-” Eddie finally decided to step inside only after the confrontation was over, and he stopped in the entrance hall when he saw Cindy and Peter trying to yank Felicia out of the web by her shoulder. </p><p>“Uh… did we miss something?” he asked, as Jamie peered out from behind his legs.</p><p>“Oh, who is <em> this </em>little cutie?” Cindy abandoned Felicia’s rescue effort just as Peter pulled her free with enough force to send them both tumbling halfway across the living room. She was clearly more interested in kneeling down to fawn over the new arrival. </p><p>“I’m Jamie. And I need to pee.”</p><p>“Oh, sure. Bathroom’s just through there.” Cindy pointed to a door behind her.</p><p>“Thank you.” Jamie hopped out from behind Eddie’s cover and retreated into the bathroom, like a bunny returning to the safety of its warren. Or, like a kid who’d been holding it in for a long trip.</p><p>“Remember to wash your hands!” Eddie called through the door as he passed by, following behind Cindy as she rushed to confront Peter.</p><p>“Pete, since when did you have a <em> kid </em>?” she asked in a quiet hiss, not offering to help him stand up as he still lay sprawled on the floor.</p><p>“Hey don’t get the wrong idea,” he protested, “she’s not mine!”</p><p>“She’s <em> mine, </em> actually,” Felicia informed her, before she fully realised the implications. “Well, kind of. She’s a <em> different </em>me’s kid. I mean-”</p><p>“Hold on,” Cindy held up a hand to interrupt her. “She’s from a different Earth where that Earth’s Black Cat is her Mom?”</p><p>Felicia could feel her mouth hanging open. How the fuck did she guess it so quickly!? “Y...Yes. Exactly.”</p><p>Cindy didn’t even look slightly perturbed at being right. Instead she just turned around to look at Eddie, the poor guy trying to be inconspicuous when he was the most conspicuous person Felicia had ever seen. “And who’s this?”</p><p>“That would be Eddie Brock,” Peter answered. “More commonly known as Venom. Yes, I realise I’ve brought two notorious supervillains to your home.”</p><p>Felicia snorted at being lumped together with the likes of Venom. She was notorious, sure, but she wasn’t a <em> super </em>villain. Not even a villain! Just a well-practised public nuisance. But she wouldn’t waste her breath trying to convince two annoying-ass do-gooders of that. Cindy didn’t even seem to care, she just stared at Eddie as if she was trying to see the Venom lurking underneath.</p><p>“Haven’t I seen you before?” she asked. Eddie’s eyebrow furrowed as a glimmer of recognition flashed in his eyes.</p><p>“The Fact Channel?”</p><p>“I used to work there until last week.”</p><p>“Oh yeah, I saw you leaving the building.”</p><p>“<em> You’re </em> my replacement?”</p><p>Eddie shrugged. “I guess so.”</p><p>“He found Jamie in the first place,” Felicia said, eager to steer the conversation back to what was important, “so he feels entitled to see her get back where she belongs.” Until she figured out why Jamie was attached to Eddie, and Venom in turn, that was the only reason available for why he’d stuck around with her. </p><p>“So how the hell did she end up <em> here </em>?” Cindy asked, sinking heavily into a worn armchair. </p><p>“We don’t know,” Peter admitted, sitting opposite her on the couch. “But we’re trying to get her back home. That’s why I’m here, since you have more multiverse experience than me.”</p><p>Cindy let out a weary sigh, resting her head on her hand. “Well… sure, I guess, but… I don’t really know how it all works, y’know. I’m not a scientist like you. I’ve just been dragged into more dimensional bullshit than you have.”</p><p>Felicia watched Peter’s face, and when the hope left his eyes she knew that they were in trouble. </p><p>“So… you can’t think of anything?” he asked. “Anything at all that might help?”</p><p>Cindy’s mouth formed a deep line, and her eyes rolled in thought. </p><p>“...I might have something. Gimme a sec.” She rose from the chair, leaving her three guests in the living room’s tense air. Eddie’s huge frame leaned against a wall, and Felicia felt better standing up as she tapped her foot against her heel. It was easier to case a place if she could see all corners of it, but Cindy didn’t seem to have anything worth stealing. Not even something to swipe out of spite. With nothing else to catch them, her eyes settled on the bathroom door.</p><p>“Jamie’s been in there for a while,” she muttered.</p><p>“She <em> did </em>eat about five tons of sugar less than two hours ago,” Eddie reminded her, not quite an accusation but close enough to make Felicia scowl.. </p><p>“Hm. I’m gonna check on her.” As she left the living room, Cindy returned with something held in two hands. </p><p>“This is the web watch I was given for our fight against the Inheritors,” she announced, holding it out towards Peter.</p><p>“The thing that let you travel between universes?” he asked.</p><p>“The very same. Though, it stopped working after the Web of Life and Destiny was destroyed and obviously I haven’t been able to fix it. Maybe you can figure something out with it.”</p><p>Felicia kept one eye on the exchange while she knocked on the bathroom door. “Jamie? You okay in there?”</p><p>“Maybe,” Peter repeated. “It gives us somewhere to start, at least. Thanks, Cindy.”</p><p>Felicia watched him pocket the device as she opened the door, so she only saw Jamie lying on the floor when she turned her head.</p><p>“Eddie! Peter!” She called out for them as she rushed into the bathroom, curling an arm around Jamie’s shoulders to lift her head off the tiles. Two fingers checked the girl’s pulse in a panic, and she saw Peter and Eddie’s shadows as they stood in the door.</p><p>“I think Jamie collapsed,” Felicia stuttered, “she’s breathing, but I-!” </p><p>A gasp of air filled Jamie’s lungs as she jolted awake, and she spasmed in Felicia’s arms with a shriek.</p><p>“NO! GET AWAY! LEAVE US ALONE!” She scrambled across the tiled floor, screaming bloody murder with her knees hugged close to her chest as she backed into a corner.</p><p>“Jamie, calm down!” Peter tried to soothe her with a firm voice as he knelt down. “It’s just us, you’re okay!”</p><p>“No, no… get away, get away from me!” Jamie cowered as she hid her face, trembling with silent sobs, and it broke Felicia’s heart. She’d never seen a kid so terrified, as if she might actually <em> die. </em>The fact that the kid was her own, in any universe, was more than she could bear to see. Even Eddie looked shocked as he watched her cry. </p><p>“Jamie? Jamie, it’s Felicia.” She kept her voice low, soft as it could be, a gentle touch on Jamie’s knee to bring her back to reality and let her know she was in safe company. “See? Everything’s okay, sweetie. You’re okay.” </p><p>Jamie slowly raised her head, just enough so her wet eyes could see Felicia, and she gulped down shaky breaths that eventually slowed as she calmed down. </p><p>“Do you know what happened, sweetie?” Felicia asked in a whisper, and Jamie shook her head.</p><p>“I don’t… I-I don’t know…” Then she furiously wiped at her eyes, her face screwing up in anger. Felicia recognised it, the anger at getting upset which only made everything worse, but she’d never figured out how to handle it for herself. Thankfully, Eddie hovering over her shoulder relieved her of the responsibility.</p><p>“Hey. Do you want off the floor?” he asked Jamie, and she nodded as she scooted out of the bathroom corner. With more space around her, she didn’t protest as Eddie effortlessly lifted her into his arms with her hands around his neck and head over his shoulder. She was surely too old for it, but in times like this things like that hardly mattered. If anything, Felicia was impressed at how Eddie took charge. She’d never guessed he was any good with kids, and Peter looked at him like he was a completely different person as he carried Jamie out of the cramped bathroom.</p><p>“You mind if I put her on the sofa?” Eddie asked Cindy, who had lingered back in the living room where she’d be out of the way. </p><p>“No, no, go ahead.” She nodded to the vacant cushions, and Eddie didn’t even groan as he lowered the girl so she was lying down with her head on the armrest.</p><p>“That better, Jamie?” </p><p>She nodded, her face clear if still a little flushed, and she gulped down one last sob as Felicia crouched down in front of her.</p><p>“Can you remember anything now?” she asked her. “Like… what you were doing, before you passed out?” </p><p>Jamie blinked to force away any more tears, still keeping her head down on the armrest. “I was standing a-at the sink, washing m-my hands, and then I…” Her eyes lost focus, staring down at some distant point on the floor. “I closed my eyes. And the man was after me.”</p><p>“The man?” Eddie repeated. </p><p>“The one in... red and black. He’s trying to steal me away.”</p><p>The same one from her nightmares, now terrorising her during the day. Felicia remembered that Eddie and Peter had said they weren’t just dreams, though. If they were bad enough to scare Jamie this much, then she was starting to believe that too. </p><p>Behind her, she heard Cindy speaking in a hush to Peter that confirmed just about all her lurking suspicions (not about who Peter was sleeping with nowadays, no, that wasn’t really important anymore). </p><p>“Pete, do you think… it might be <em> them </em>? That they’ve come back?”</p><p>“Maybe. But I don’t want to scare her.”</p><p>And just who was ‘them’ supposed to be? Felicia had a feeling they were about to find out as Cindy cleared her throat and leaned down to address the scared kid on her couch.</p><p>“Hey, Jamie, how about I get you some water? Or maybe a popsicle? I’ve got some in the freezer if you want. You can pick out your favorite flavor.” </p><p>Jamie raised her head, and it was clear she was intrigued. But she looked to Felicia and Eddie, like she was waiting for permission to leave. </p><p>“Go on, Jamie,” Felicia encouraged. “We’ll be here.” Whatever Peter was going to tell them about Jamie’s nightmare man, it clearly wasn’t something he wanted her around to hear about. So when Jamie picked herself up and followed Cindy into the kitchen, she wasted no time in facing Peter to get some answers.</p><p>“You’ve got that look in your eyes, Pete,” she told him. It could be either good or bad, that look that told everyone who recognised it that he had something to share, something he knew about that no-one else did. For the likes of Pete, it was a very common look. </p><p>“You guys don’t know about the Inheritors, do you?” he asked, scratching at his chin like he wished he didn’t know about them either. </p><p>“No,” Felicia gave the obvious answer.</p><p>“Not a thing,” Eddie agreed.</p><p>Peter exhaled heavily, sagging under the weight of the sigh. “They’re… bad. Very, <em> very </em> bad news, especially for Spider people like me and Cindy. We fought a <em> war </em>against them. Thousands of worlds lost their Spiders before we managed to seal them away.”</p><p>“Why were they after you?” Felicia asked, figuring that was the easiest question to ask out of all the others bubbling up.</p><p>“They <em> feed </em> on us. Literally, they think we’re delicacies or some shit. That’s how they can track us down across the multiverse-”</p><p>“And you think one of them is after Jamie,” Eddie finished for him.</p><p>“Maybe. It’s… it’s the only thing I can think of. And it’s the worst case scenario.”</p><p>“But Jamie doesn’t <em> have </em> spider powers,” Felicia pointed out. “Why would they be after her?”</p><p>Peter threw up his hands in defeat. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re using her to get to this Earth somehow? They’d have a feast if they ended up here. But they’ve been completely cut off from other worlds since the Web was remade. I don’t know how-”</p><p>“Peter.” Cindy appeared around the doorframe that led to the kitchen. “Jamie’s asking for her parents.”</p><p>Peter looked to Felicia and Eddie, giving them their cue to go fix everything again.</p><p>“Well, we’re the best she’s got right now,” Felicia sighed, finding Jamie sitting at a breakfast bar on a stool with an orange ice-pop melting in her hands.</p><p>“Mommy?” Her head perked up when she saw Felicia through the doorway.</p><p>“It’s Felicia, Jamie.” It was both a correction and a confirmation- at least, she hoped it was. “You feeling better now?” She took the stool beside Jamie, noting that her hands were still shaking.</p><p>“Yeah. Where’s Da-?” Jamie cut herself off abruptly, and looked straight down at the floor like she’d said something wrong. Yet Felicia still knew instantly what she was about to say.</p><p>“Your Dad?” she asked, still gentle and soft as featherdown. “Are you asking for your Dad?” She hadn’t had Jamie to herself until now, hadn’t had the chance to ask the question nagging at her since she knew the kid existed. But Jamie’s face flushed again despite how she tried to hide it, and Felicia wondered if she should have asked at all.</p><p>“It’s okay,” Jamie told her. “I know… he’s not here. He’s not around here. I’m okay. Really.” She even gave a weak smile, to try and convince Felicia.</p><p>But what did she mean? Was her dad dead? Or… did he just not exist in this world? How did she know that? If they were alone, Felicia could have pressed her. But Peter and Eddie appeared on the other side of the breakfast bar, cutting the short mother-daughter moment shorter still.</p><p>“Jamie,” Peter said as he leaned over the bar, “I know it’s a scary thing to think about, but do you remember anything else about the man that was after you? What he was wearing? His hair? His eyes?”</p><p>Jamie shook her head. “N-no… I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Hey, it’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong.” Now he pulled back to address Felicia and Eddie. “I think I know where we need to go next.”</p><p>“I’m listening,” Felicia said, with one eye still on Jamie sitting next to her.</p><p>Peter took a step back as he pulled something from his pocket. It was like a watch, but the blank face had room for more numbers than just the time of day. </p><p>“This watch may be the key to getting Jamie home,” he said. “Or it may be the key to figuring out what the Inheritors or up to. Hopefully it’s both. But first I need to get it working again. And to do that, I need some heavy duty equipment. The kind I <em> used </em>to have access to, before Alchemax bought out Horizon Labs.”</p><p>“They’ve got a track record for screwing people over, huh,” Eddie scoffed, mostly to himself.</p><p>“The lab doesn’t exist anymore,” Peter continued, “but the equipment still does. And I bet some of it is with the guy who funded it all.”</p><p>“Well, who?” Felicia pressed. “Where?”</p><p>Peter now grinned, like he was thinking of a private joke that the rest of them wouldn’t get. “How do you all feel about a trip to San Francisco?”</p><p>He was the only one smiling about it.</p><p>“I hate flying,” Felicia muttered.</p><p>“There’s… bad memories for me over there,” Eddie grumbled.</p><p>“Mommy told me California smells like poop,” Jamie mumbled.</p><p>“So I’m not hearing a definite no…” Peter let the offer linger, clearly waiting for one of the three to give in so the others would follow suit. But that didn’t happen, of course, Why the hell did they have to fly to the other side of the country?! Peter was supposed to be the smart one, surely he could find whatever he needed at home. Hell, last time Felicia checked he’d practically invented teleportation!</p><p>“Alright,” Peter said dramatically, turning away on his heel. “I’ll fly over <em> all by myself </em> . I’ll have to <em> break into </em> one of the most advanced university campuses on the planet without the help of the world’s <em> greatest </em> cat thief, and I’ll have to do it without getting lost- after all, stupid Spider-Man can’t <em> possibly </em>find his away around San Francisco like-”</p><p>Christ, Felicia was sick of hearing him already. “Alright, alright, jeesh! We’ll go already!” She wasn’t proud of how quickly she gave into his obvious bait, but God it had been a long day already and the last thing she needed was fucking Spider-Man trying to guilt trip her like she was some kind of idiot.</p><p>But from how he smiled at her, she sure felt like one anyway.</p><p>“Great! Fantastic! Cindy, I’m gonna be away for-!”</p><p>“I heard, Pete,” Cindy called from the safe haven of the living room. “Just make sure you tell Jameson first.”</p><p>“Ah, I’m sure he won’t even notice I’m gone. Just gotta find the flight times, and get a motel, and see if I can convince Max to-” His verbal to-do list trailed off as he wandered away, leaving Eddie to bang his head against the nearest hard surface- the countertop at his back- as if he could wake up in a different universe himself if he tried. </p><p>“Bad memories, Eddie?” Felicia asked, laying her head sideways across the breakfast bar so she was eye-level with him.</p><p>“Yeah,” he muttered with his head still down. “Lots of them.”</p><p>“Does California really smell like poop, Felicia?” Jamie asked, lowering her own head to mirror Felicia.</p><p>“Only in Los Angeles, sweetie,” Felicia sighed, suddenly wondering where the fuck things had gone so wrong so quickly for her. Not that it was Jamie’s fault, not at all. If anything, she was the one <em> good </em>thing that had happened to her recently. Proof that there was a Felicia out there who was still a good person. A good mother, at least. </p><p>This Felicia could live with that, she supposed. A good mother was better than a good girlfriend, and she’d knew she’d never be one of those in any reality. </p><p>After all, maybe that was what Jamie had meant, when she said her Dad wasn’t around. He’d left them. Or he was never around to begin with. The other Felicia had made a horrible choice, and her daughter had to suffer for it.</p><p>...Maybe the nightmare man had something to do with her Dad. Maybe sending her back home would be a mistake.</p><p>Or maybe Felicia, always the selfish greedy thief, was just thinking of excuses to keep Jamie for herself. That was what she was really best at. Taking what wasn’t hers to have. </p><p>Not a good parent. A good thief. She’d only realised in the last few years that there was a difference between the two. And, even then, she often forgot. </p><p>She raised her head up now, letting Jamie do the same as she copied, though Eddie elected to still keep his down low.</p><p><em> ‘Bad memories, huh?’ </em> For the first time, Felicia found herself wondering what could be bad enough to make someone into something like Venom. Though, from what she’d seen of Eddie in the last day, he didn’t really seem so bad anymore. Jamie wasn’t scared of him, at least.</p><p>So, really, why should Felicia be scared? She wasn't. If anything, she wanted to give the guy a hug. He looked like he needed one as much as Jamie did.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>For a moment, Felicia almost forgot that she was in a stranger’s house with one of her many and most infamous exes, and she almost-</span>
  <em>
    <span> almost</span>
  </em>
  <span>- managed to relax. But then Peter reminded her of reality as he shouted from somewhere beyond the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, what the hell?!” He came storming in staring at his phone like it had committed a grievous slight against him, like daring to fall out his hand or showing him a two-minute unskippable ad on YouTube. “No flights until tomorrow morning! What the hell are they doing with all our tax dollars that we can’t get </span>
  <em>
    <span>one </span>
  </em>
  <span>flight across the country at a moment’s notice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie giggled around a mouthful of orange ice at his misfortune, while Felicia physically restrained herself from rolling her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even if we went today,” she told him, “we wouldn’t get there until like, seven in the evening.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>And </span>
  </em>
  <span>we’d have nowhere to spend the night.” Eddie had pulled himself back out of whatever pit he’d found himself within so he could cross his arms over his chest and assault Peter with a hard glare. The guy must </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>not like San Francisco.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, okay,” Peter exhaled with his hands out, as if trying to calm a herd about to trample him. “I’ll make the arrangements or whatever. But I’m not paying for your tickets or rooms!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’ll be </span>
  <em>
    <span>my </span>
  </em>
  <span>job, then,” Felicia sighed to herself, “since I’m the only adult here with any significant income.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stealing is not </span>
  <em>
    <span>income</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Felicia.” Peter threw the accusation over his shoulder as he left, leaving it to echo behind him just so that Felicia couldn’t have the last word. But that didn’t stop her from muttering one under her breath. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span>, if you have a good fence...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s a ‘fence’ mean?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia looked over to Jamie, as she vacuumed up the last pieces of her ice pop with big eyes asking her question again. Apparently she hadn’t muttered quietly enough. But Felicia saw no reason why she couldn’t share her infinite and forbidden knowledge. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s someone who takes on stolen things from thieves and sells them. They have to be good at it to not get caught, and they get to keep some of the money they get in return.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jamie stuck her tongue out in thought, the tip slightly stained orange. “Why don’t they just go and steal the things so they can keep </span>
  <em>
    <span>all </span>
  </em>
  <span>of the money?” she asked. “Or why doesn’t the thieves just sell them themselves? Or-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cause it’s a tricky business, sweetie,” Felicia interrupted, smiling at her infectious enthusiasm. “You have to be careful if you want to stay out of jail.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really want to be telling a ten-year-old child how to be a good thief?” Eddie stood on the other side of the breakfast bar, facing Felicia with thinly-veiled disapproval. Before Jamie came along, Felicia might have felt threatened by the look. But now it took all she had not to laugh in his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just giving her </span>
  <em>
    <span>information,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Eddie. Not my fault whatever she chooses to do with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie glowered, threateningly and also uselessly because he knew as well as Felicia did that there was not a damn thing he could really do. Jamie </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>some kind of Felicia’s kid, after all, and they were sure to all be thieves in some way. Chances are she would follow in her mother’s footsteps just a little bit.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you’re really careful, right, Felicia?” Jamie asked, cleaning up around her mouth with a scrap of paper towel. “That’s how you’ve never been caught?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not quite. I’ve been in jail once, but…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia was always ready to admit her faults; her problems and flaws and every other little thing that would stop her from getting into heaven. But this… this was a difficult thing to bring up, and she hadn’t realised </span>
  <em>
    <span>how </span>
  </em>
  <span>difficult it was until she actually tried to do it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because she hadn’t been </span>
  <em>
    <span>caught</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It had nothing to do with her, her skill or luck or planning. It was because of Peter- well, cause of someone hijacking his head, apparently. She hadn’t believed him, of course, but after all this multiverse shit she supposed she was willing to cut him some slack for it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it didn’t erase her ruined reputation. It didn’t erase the months she’d spent locked up, all the riches and treasures she’d lost, all the years of careful work gone to waste. The mess with Lee Price had been nothing compared to the hole Peter had left her in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So then, it </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>everything to do with her. Her horrible taste in men. Her inability to leave good people alone. Her being so desperate to go back to the past and relive days that couldn’t exist anymore, that probably shouldn’t have existed in the first place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If she’d just stayed away from Pete, she would have been spared. If he had been in his right mind at the time, he would have still hurt her anyway. Maybe not as bad as what had happened. Maybe not as brutally. But the hurt would still happen, and it would still be her fault, and she’d still blame him for it, and in the end nothing at all would have changed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And where would she be now, if she’d never been jailed? Would she still have ended up working with Venom somehow? Would she have ever met Jamie, or… had a daughter to call her own? Those were things she needed a good few hours to think about, if she even wanted to. She was just glad Peter wasn’t in the room anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never mind.” Felicia shook her head, gathering her hair over one shoulder to give her hands something to do that didn’t involve making fists. “What about your Mom back home? Does she behave herself on your side of the pond?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think so.” Jamie sounded a little disappointed in admitting her real mom was a goody-two shoes. “She used to steal things too, but now she has a security company. And Dad has his newspaper.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Newspaper?”</span>
  
  <span>Eddie suddenly perked up, all disapproval and disappointment evaporating as his attention settled on the girl, while Felicia wrangled with her own flare of curiosity. So her Dad wasn’t as much of a sensitive subject as she’d feared… though she was still anxious as all hell about eventually having to ask her who he was. </span>
</p><p><span>“He called it ‘Crimewave’,” Jamie went on as she stood up on the supports of her chair, “cause it’s all about supervillains, and he used to bring me to the building before I started school, and there’s this </span><em><span>biiiig </span></em><span>picture in his office of the first cover, and he has all my </span><em><span>baby pictures </span></em><span>framed</span> <span>on his desk even though I keep telling him they’re </span><em><span>so embarrassing </span></em><span>but it’s like he doesn’t </span><em><span>listen</span></em><span> and-” </span></p><p>
  <span>Just as Jamie was about to unleash a monumental sigh to emphasise how torturous her life truly was, Peter returned with another sour look at his phone in his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Flights booked, cheapest motel rooms found and Cindy thoroughly pissed off at me leaving her behind. So thanks for everything, guys.” He really sounded like it was all </span>
  <em>
    <span>their </span>
  </em>
  <span>fault that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>wanted to be a hero and set everything right. What an asshole! No wonder Felicia used to like him so much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, let’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>impose</span>
  </em>
  <span> on her any longer, since I assume you got what you came here for. C’mon, Jamie.” Felicia took the girl’s hand to lead her out, leaving Peter behind to splutter out a meek “What’s that supposed to mean?”. She assumed Eddie was following behind, since he also wasn’t the kind who would want to be in a room alone with the likes of Pete, and she did her best not to give Cindy a serious case of stink eye (not cause she was Peter’s new girlfriend, or fuckbuddy, or whatever the hell she was. Felicia just didn’t like being webbed to a wall for no good reason). At least Jamie was on her best behavior, stopping beside Felicia to turn towards their host. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you for the popsicle, Miss Cindy. And sorry for fainting in your bathroom.” Whatever her real Mom was like, at least she’d taught the girl good manners.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very welcome, Jamie. Don’t worry about it.” Cindy knelt down so Jamie could see her sincere smile, and as she straightened up it flipped right over to a scowl. “And just so you know, Felicia, I’ll be getting a security system installed overnight so don’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span>-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As if you even have anything </span>
  <em>
    <span>worth</span>
  </em>
  <span> stealing.” What was it about people always assuming you wanted to steal </span>
  <em>
    <span>specifically </span>
  </em>
  <span>from them? Felicia had </span>
  <em>
    <span>standards</span>
  </em>
  <span>, for God’s sake, at least for targets worth her time. For men, not so much apparently. Even with that in her mind, she went chasing after Pete through the front door before she got into a literal cat fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell Kenny in advertising I said hi, Eddie,” Cindy said behind her, as she fled with Jamie in tow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s a huge asshole.” Eddie kept his voice muted so that Jamie wouldn’t overhear the curse, but Felicia still heard the hiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, and he hated me, so now you have an easy way to piss him off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Noted.” Eddie sounded ever so slightly pleased, the last of them to leave as he closed the door gently behind him. Felicia waited until it clicked shut to acknowledge Pete’s presence in the stairwell (even though Cindy could probably hear through the walls with Spider-Sense or Spider-Ears or </span>
  <em>
    <span>whatever the fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span>. God, she was so sick of spiders). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What I </span>
  <em>
    <span>meant, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Pete,” Felicia said with one hand on her hip, the other still holding onto Jamie, “was that you got your multiverse-hopping deus ex machina or whatever from her. What even </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> that thing?” She gestured to the bulky device now strapped around his wrist, two circles of LCD set into some kind of gauntlet. It looked shiny, and expensive, and easy to carry- the three essential ticks on any thieves checklist- but Felicia didn’t want to be swiping anything that she didn’t even know what to name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a web watch.” Pete made it sound like the name was embarrassing, which it was. “When the Inheritors were hunting spiders down they let us travel between different universes connected to the Web of Life and Destiny.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Web of </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Felicia heard him just fine, but the name was so much stupider than ‘web watch’ that she’d neglected to prepare herself for it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is the most pretentious Goddamn thing I’ve ever heard of,” Eddie chimed in, “and I wrote my thesis about theatre kids on campus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Peter threw his hands up, like he wanted to strangle the two of them with each hand. “Well if it makes you any feel better, the whole Web got blown up and almost destroyed the entire </span>
  <em>
    <span>multiverse</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and made all these things stop working.” He stabbed a finger rather dramatically at the watch as he started walking down the stairs to get away from the whole affair he’d been dragged into. “And they </span>
  <em>
    <span>still </span>
  </em>
  <span>don’t work now that it’s been rebuilt. By my daughter. From another universe...” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia blinked, still holding onto Jamie so that she didn’t run forward to grab Peter by the shoulders and knock his brain out of his head. He’d had </span>
  <em>
    <span>experience </span>
  </em>
  <span>in this department and he’d never mentioned it until </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Men were so fucking exhausting sometimes!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is a common occurrence, then?” Eddie at least managed to keep a level-head out of the two (three?) of them, though it was obvious he was clenching his fists as he crossed his arms over his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kinda.” Peter shrugged as paused at the bottom of the next floor. ”But she was sixteen, and she had a way to get back home by herself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia hadn’t realised Jamie had let go of her hand until she saw the kid running down the stairs to catch up to Pete, almost crashing into him with her frantic speed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was her name?” she asked breathlessly, hopping side-to-side on each foot. “Your daughter’s name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, shit…’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>Felicia knew why Jamie was so interested in what Peter would say, but there was nothing she or Eddie could do about it. Peter had heard the question, and he would give the answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annie May.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the one answer he shouldn’t have given. Jamie gasped as she froze on the spot, and then she hopped over to Peter’s other side as her mouth ran amok faster than any normal person’s brain would have been able to keep up with (so good thing no one in the stairwell at that moment was normal).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I knew an Annie May! She’s my best friend, and you’re her dad, and-and we go to the same school, but she’s a year younger than me so we only talk during recess, and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah, woah, Jamie, calm down.” Peter held her still with a hand on her shoulder, leaning down on one knee to meet her wide and hopeful eyes. Felicia could see the hope in them, even from the distance between the top and bottom of the stairs, the hope of just </span>
  <em>
    <span>one </span>
  </em>
  <span>thing Jamie could recognise from home being within reach. And she knew that it wouldn’t be there for much longer.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think your Annie is the same as mine’s,” Pete told her carefully, gently, like putting a band-aid over a wound. Then Felicia heard Eddie make a sound low in his throat, like a cough or gurgle. Though maybe it was from the symbiote, a growl of some kind. A warning. Felicia stiffened as Jamie cocked her head to one side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How come?” she asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because…” Peter let out a sigh, the sound whistling through his teeth. “The Venom in her world was a bad man. And he died when she was young. Younger than you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Died?” Eddie didn’t sound very disturbed by the casual mention that one version of him was dead. Not even very surprised. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Venom was bad…?” Jamie deflated, her shoulders sagging and even her clothes seeming to drag around her now. It was like if you told any young kid out on the street that Spider-Man tortured puppies as a hobby. Denial, shock, defeat, all rolled into just a few seconds. But this was Venom, not Spider-Man. This was the murderer, manipulator, liar and habitual brain-muncher known as Venom. Even if just one of those things was still true in Jamie’s world, he was disqualified from any kind of hero ranking. But Jamie obviously had some kind of awe, even respect, for him. Why else would she have let him swing her around fifty feet off the ground? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So maybe her Venom was never a villain at all. Felicia didn’t know if she could suspend her disbelief enough for that to make sense.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was very bad,” Peter confirmed, with emphasis just to crush the girl’s version of reality even more. “Well, he was… he was sick as well. He didn’t get the help he needed.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia heard Eddie make another sound next to her now, and this one was definitely a growl. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the thick muscles of his crossed arms tensing, coiling, readying themselves for a fight. They unwrapped from around his chest as it heaved out in a heavy breath, and she could feel the heat from his building rage through his shirt as she reached out a hand to hold him back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eddie. Don’t.” Her warning was a whisper, the rest of her body still so as not to alarm Jamie. She wasn’t surprised that Eddie froze at her touch, that he looked at her like he was considering breaking the hand she dared to place on him. But she </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>surprised that he actually listened to her, staying put at the top of the stairs as Jamie, somehow, recovered some of her smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My Venom was sick, too,” she told Peter, almost like it was a badge of honor. “But he got better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s good.” Peter almost sounded sincere as he nodded at her. “I bet it’s cause he got help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And cause he met someone good for him,” she added, leaning back on her heels with her hands behind her back. And then, over Pete’s shoulder, she looked at Eddie like it was some kind of inside joke between the two of them. Felicia </span>
  <em>
    <span>swore </span>
  </em>
  <span>that was what she saw, just before Peter straightened up and blocked her view of the girl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did he, now?” Peter threw an indecipherable look at Eddie as he stood up, and Eddie betrayed no sign that he acknowledged Jamie’s cryptic assertion (too busy glaring at Pete for any of that). Whether or not there was some kind of secret loop Felicia obviously wasn’t in on, she was just sick of being around the two of them by now, sick of dealing with </span>
  <em>
    <span>men</span>
  </em>
  <span> and all the baggage they came with. If she’d known the day was going to be so long, she’d have picked up another Starbucks for all her trouble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well then.” Peter seemed to pick up on the terminal awkwardness he was at the center of, or he was just conscious of Eddie being two seconds away from trying to throw him out the nearest window. “I guess I’ll… meet you at the airport tomorrow. Boarding is at 11am. You gonna be okay with these two, Jamie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh huh.” She craned her head up to nod at him. “Thank you for helping, Unc… Peter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s no problem. Stay safe until the morning, okay? We’ll get you home as soon as we can.” Peter’s easy smile failed when he turned to Felicia and Eddie, and he just nodded farewell so he could escape as quickly as possible. Felicia listened to him descending the steps below as she stood beside Jamie, feeling like she had to reclaim her from Pete’s lingering influence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thought he’d never fucking leave...” Eddie’s curse whistled out under his breath, but the stairwell made it echo as Felicia hurriedly covered Jamie’s ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Language!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Right. Sorry.” He actually looked guilty, which must have been a feat for a man as self-righteous as he was. Felicia felt a little guilty herself now, for trying to think of how to best get rid of him. Pete did the hard work for her in just excusing himself for his own sake, but Eddie didn’t seem to want Jamie out of his sight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was </span>
  <em>
    <span>something </span>
  </em>
  <span>going on with those two, dammit. But Felicia wouldn’t be able to find it out until she got Jamie alone. And… well, she just wanted to see what she was like without anyone else around. What it might be like to be a real mother, even if it was only temporarily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have a new problem, anyway,” Eddie said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Where’s she gonna stay until tomorrow?” He nodded down at Jamie, who looked just a little puzzled as to why her ears were plugged up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good question…” Felicia’s hands moved down to Jamie’s shoulders as she knelt down to her height. “Where do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>to stay, Jamie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked up at Felicia, then over to Eddie, then down at her feet. “I don’t know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, my apartment might be a little more comfy than Eddie’s for you,” Felicia suggested. “And we can order something in for dinner. How about pizza?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a new light in Jamie’s eyes as they looked up, the slow and cautious return of hope, though she bit her lip as her arms swung back and forth. “That sounds nice, but…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t wanna leave Eddie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felicia’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked up at Eddie as he stood leaning against the stairwell wall. He just shrugged, leaving the situation entirely in her hands- just as she’d wanted, though she wasn’t sure what she could do to convince the girl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can keep you safe, Jamie,” Felicia promised. “The scary man won’t get you with me around.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. But... I feel better with Eddie around too.” Jamie averted her gaze from both of them, like she thought she’d done something wrong. And Felicia turned her attention back to Eddie, who was stubbornly staying out of the whole business as he looked in the complete opposite direction. In any other circumstance she would have praised him for just leaving it all to her, but now she was just frustrated- dammit, man, say </span>
  <em>
    <span>something </span>
  </em>
  <span>to make her hate you or whatever!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it was no use. Even if she just left Eddie behind, Jamie wouldn’t forgive her for it, and she wouldn’t be in the mood for answering any questions. And, well, if these ‘Inheritors’ really were trying to find her, it would help to have a fighter on hand in case any of them showed up in the middle of the night. In the end, Eddie’s presence was a small price to pay for keeping Jamie’s spirits up in spite of everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After all, if you had someone like Eddie on your side, wouldn’t you want him close by?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” Felicia hid her sigh of defeat in the exertion of pushing herself upright. “He can come, if he wants.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?” Eddie either hadn’t been listening, or had done a very good job of pretending not to listen. From how wide and uncomprehending his eyes were, Felicia guessed the latter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll be on my couch,” she informed him, “but I’m sure you’ve slept in worse places.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, y-yeah, I… are you sure?” Eddie looked at her like she was the crazy one out of the two of them (and she was wondering if she really was). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it’ll help Jamie feel safer, then yes, I’m sure,” she insisted, herding Jamie in front of her as the girl beamed with a grin that made Felicia feel a little better about the whole thing. “Come on. And this time we </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>getting a cab.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Originally this chapter was going to spill out into what happens at Felicia's apartment, but that part kept getting too long so I've decided to save it for the next upload. But rest assured, it will involve the moment of truth for Felicia at last :^)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Are you mad at me, Eddie?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now why would I be mad?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia indulged in her second-favorite hobby- eavesdropping- from her bedroom, listening through the door to the living room as she readied herself for sleep. Eddie had behaved himself so far- shoes off indoors, feet off the couch, letting Jamie use the TV remote (she really liked wrestling for some reason...)- but Felicia still didn’t want to leave him unsupervised anywhere in her apartment. So she sat on her rug as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, listening to the two of them finish the last pieces of the three pizzas they’d ordered. Before that they’d taken a detour on the way to the apartment to get some essentials for Jamie- toothbrush, toothpaste, pajamas, other clothes just in case she was stuck here for longer than tomorrow. Felicia had assumed those were all the important things, at least. She heard that becoming a mother rewired your whole brain, forcing you to always worry about how your kids were doing, if they were well, if they had everything they needed. Without that help from evolutionary biology, she only had common sense and guesswork on her side. Eddie picked out a cute stuffed toy for her, at least, a floppy-eared dog that stared at Felicia from the foot of her bed, the sole witness to her nosy crime. She stuck her tongue out at it and shuffled closer to the bedroom door, almost pressing her ear against it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because I told Felicia to make you come over,” Jamie answered Eddie, muffled by a mouthful of dough. “I know you’d rather be by yourself with Symby right now. I didn’t think...” She trailed off with a gulp, and Felicia felt her eyebrows knit together. That name again, Symby…. she’d ask Jamie about it once Eddie was out of earshot. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, Jamie,” he said with a groan, like he was stretching something (or like he’d just eaten way too much, which was more likely from what Felicia had seen). “I’m not mad. I want to keep an eye on you, anyway.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t have to. I’m not a baby anymore.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You want the last slice?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Gimme gimme gimme!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia couldn’t stop a smile catching on her lips. She would have preferred having Jamie to herself, selfish as she was, but Eddie seemed to have proven himself worthy of sharing her. And he hadn’t brought out Venom again, or the symbiote, so that was a point in his favor. By God, it was almost like he was normal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then again, normal was boring. Normal was Peter. Felicia had never liked normal very much, no matter how she tried to tolerate it. She was a grown woman who ran around rooftops in a leather catsuit, after all, and she rather enjoyed it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Would she give it up for motherhood, though? Apparently one version of her had done just that. She couldn’t say if she admired her or not. She liked Jamie, of course. It was hard not to, when she hadn’t been around long enough to start being annoying. But looking after someone else’s kid for a while and raising one from birth were two very different beasts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the end, after her ass started going numb from sitting on it, she decided she did admire the other Felicia. It took a lot of bravery to bring a baby into the kind of world they both lived in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jamie? You gonna brush your teeth before bed?” Felicia stood up as she pushed open her bedroom door, finding Eddie sitting on the floor while Jamie took up the whole length of the sofa. He didn’t seem to mind giving up the space, somewhat lost in a food coma.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay.” Jamie clambered over the armrest so she didn’t have to skirt around Eddie, and Felicia waited until the ensuite door was closed before approaching Eddie. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So who’s Symby?” She’d changed her mind about asking Jamie- Eddie owed her honesty for all the free food he’d gotten that day, and for the simple fact of giving him a roof over his head that wasn’t infested with rats and roaches and whatever other nightmares lurked in the single room he called home. Maybe a small taste of luxury would motivate him to find somewhere better for himself after all this was over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where did you hear that?” Eddie remained on the floor as he craned his neck back, too weary to even scowl at her. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“I was eavesdropping, of course,” she told him, like he really should have expected it (and he should have). He sighed as he pulled himself up onto the vacated sofa, sinking back into the cushions as he closed his eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s my symbiote.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ah. Of course that was what it was. Felicia supposed she should have guessed it herself. Though now she just had a whole different kind of question to be answered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She?” Felicia walked in front of the sofa so she was standing in front of him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. She’s a lady.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He shrugged, though with his pizza-fatigue it was just a twitch of his shoulders. “Cause she told me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So the symbiote was </span>
  <em>
    <span>literally </span>
  </em>
  <span>his girlfriend. Felicia hadn’t thought anything could shock her anymore- and she was right, cause in retrospect it wasn’t surprising at all. Not even that weird, where someone like Eddie was concerned. It would have been </span>
  <em>
    <span>more </span>
  </em>
  <span>weird if he wasn’t attached to the alien, after spending so much time with her. Dare she admit that it was almost sweet? Probably not just now. She had enough to deal with as it was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fair enough.” Felicia seated herself on the free chair that didn’t face the TV, the one she’d meant to use for reading (but really, when did she ever have free time for things like that?). “And Jamie isn’t scared of her? You and Symby together, I mean.” It felt a little weird giving the symbiote a name, treating her like some</span>
  <em>
    <span>one </span>
  </em>
  <span>rather than some</span>
  <em>
    <span>thing, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but she wasn’t about to disrespect the scary alien in the room. Just because Venom wasn’t in sight didn’t mean the symbiote wasn’t there- watching, listening, judging. Talking to Eddie in silent shrieks. Felicia wondered if her voice was the same as Maniac’s, the one that had pierced her skull and turned her into a puppet.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Doesn’t look like it.” Eddie crossed his arms over his chest, hands tucked in like he was hugging himself, and Felicia was surprised at how unsure he sounded. Like he was pretending to not know… which made no sense. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How did you know she wouldn’t be scared?” she pressed. “Before you showed her, earlier today?” He </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>to have known in advance, otherwise he wouldn’t have risked being Venom in front of her. And on account of him looking so damn smug about it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t look smug right now. He looked like he’d been caught with his symbiote in a cookie jar. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She... mentioned Venom existing in her world to me.” He looked away as his grip around himself tightened. “And you heard what she said to Pete. He’s not such a bad guy over there.” And he shrugged again, his bunched shoulders almost reaching his ears. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” Felicia </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>wished she could have heard that alleged conversation for herself. But, of course, he and Jamie only ever spoke when she wasn’t around. Which was surely the whole point of whatever they spoke about; making sure no-one could overhear. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is it really that hard to believe?” Eddie must have heard the skepticism running rich in her voice. He almost sounded like he was hurt by the notion, the lightest crack in his throat as his eyes narrowed at her. And, by God, Felicia almost felt guilty for it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It would have been, a few years ago,” she admitted. “Then again, hard to believe I’d ever be a mother too.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was never something she’d considered, even as a little girl. Too busy pining after her father who was never around, trying to impress her mother who never went away, to ever think about putting another kid through the kind of life she was raised to expect. She had looked away to avoid any more secondhand guilt from Eddie, but just ended up glancing back over a few seconds later. His eyes were down, and he looked like he wanted to say something else. And maybe he would have, if Jamie didn’t emerge from the bedroom behind him with a yawn. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is there a movie on?” She stood behind the sofa in cat-plastered pyjamas, looking like she was about to collapse forward onto it and just spend the whole night there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shouldn’t you be thinking about getting to sleep?” Felicia asked as she stood up to herd the girl back into the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can stay up a little later...” Jamie’s protest was interrupted by another yawn, “...if I just keep my eyes open...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve gotta be ready for the big day tomorrow,” Felicia reminded her. “You’ll need all the rest you can get.” Then she remembered why Jamie might be so reluctant to sleep -not just because she wanted to be difficult for the sake of it- and she knelt down to put a hand on her shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t be scared of another nightmare, okay? I’ll be right here. And so will Eddie.” Felicia nodded towards him as he looked over from the couch, and Jamie chewed on her lip before giving a small nod.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay… good night, Eddie.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Night, Jamie.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia saw Jamie back through the door, and found Eddie still staring at her from over the edge of the couch that would be his bed for the night. There was a moment of them looking at each other, neither of them wanting to say ‘good night’ first. So they just didn’t say anything. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You warm enough?” Felicia tucked Jamie in on one side of her bed, putting the soft dog next to her. Jamie nodded, curling into the pillow with heavy eyelids. She must have been exhausted, staving off sleep for such a long day, but she didn’t want to keep her eyes closed for longer than a second.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can leave the lights on low, if you want,” Felicia offered- she’d once been a young girl scared of the dark and anything that lurked within it, after all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes please.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So she leaned over to adjust her lamp’s bulb, the only light in the room, low enough to leave minimal shadows in the wall corners, and she felt Jamie shift so that she was facing towards the lamp.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Felicia?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, sweetie?” She faced Jamie, who lay cocooned in the blanket with her dog trapped tight in her arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re very pretty.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia had to smile. She’d heard such things from countless men, but the only sincere compliments were ones that came from kids. “Well thank you, darling. I’d have to be pretty to make a girl as sweet as you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you hate Eddie?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia was about to settle into her own pillow, but Jamie’s question had her wide-awake. She hadn’t thought she’d been overtly rude to Eddie, hell she would have said she’d been downright friendly with him for Jamie’s sake. Hate was a precious resource, not something she just gave out for free nowadays. Not even Peter made her feel that anymore. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why do you think that?” She propped her head up on her elbow as Jamie avoided her gaze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He said... he wasn’t good to you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was one way of putting it. Though… she was surprised that Eddie even admitted such a thing. When would it have even come up? Maybe he was really feeling that guilty over it, but… no. Felicia couldn’t buy that, for some reason. She didn’t remember him ever apologising. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate </span>
  </em>
  <span>him,” she sighed even though it was true, “we just... have a bit of a rough history together. He hurt me pretty bad once. But that was a long time ago. We’re both different people now. Does that make sense?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jamie nodded into the pillow, though Felicia couldn’t tell if she really did understand. She was a smart kid, but complicated friendships weren’t something you really experienced until you were in high school at least. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...Was it even a friendship that she and Eddie had? They’d helped each other out a few times, sure, but he wasn’t exactly someone she trusted. He wouldn’t have gotten involved with this if Jamie hadn’t found him, not unless he had something to do with-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And that’s when Felicia finally had the suspicion. The horrible thought that had been staring her in the face all day, the possibility that simply couldn’t be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>No. No, no, no, it can’t be...’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Peter wasn’t her father. Jamie hadn’t mentioned any other men around, and Felicia didn’t really have a list of old boyfriends she could think over. There was only Eddie left. But… </span>
  <em>
    <span>how?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was the first time Felicia had a moment alone with Jamie, and it might be the last if Peter’s plan for tomorrow ended up working. She had to know. Even if she ended up wishing she didn’t.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jamie, before you go to sleep… there’s something I need to know.” Felicia heard herself whispering, her throat threatening to close up. She found herself frantically scanning Jamie’s sleepy face for any sign of resemblance, anything that she’d overlooked before, but there was nothing that hinted towards her father’s identity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mm?” Then her eyes opened, blue as the sea, and Felicia remembered that Eddie’s were blue too. When had she even noticed that about him?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where you come from,” Felicia said slowly, measuring each word out with utmost care, “who is your dad?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jamie didn’t close her eyes again. They stayed open, wide and guilty, and looked away as she pulled the covers tighter around herself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eddie told me not to tell...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, God.’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>So either it was Eddie, or it was someone worse. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And why is that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He said you wouldn’t like it. That you’d get mad.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t be mad at you, sweetie. I promise.” That was very true; she’d be angry at only one person if she was right, and it wouldn’t be Jamie. “I’d just like to know what kind of man would make a lovely girl like you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jamie turned on her back, staring at the ceiling with her stuffed toy on her chest. “You’re just saying that cause you’re… well, you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>my Mom, but-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So you know I’m telling the truth. And you know what else?” Felicia squashed her fear of the truth down as she sat up. Jamie was obviously as scared of giving the answer as she was of hearing it, and she wouldn’t tell her if she thought she’d get in trouble for it. The kid had enough to be scared of, and no matter how badly she needed to know Felicia had no intention of making it worse for her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think you’re very brave,” she told Jamie, softly and surely and absolutely sincerely. “Any other kid your age, if they were in a situation like this I bet they’d be scared stiff. No idea what to do, or where to go, and they’d be crying their eyes out every other minute. Even without nightmares to deal with. I may not be your real Mom, but I know she must be very proud of you. What I </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> know is what kind of man she would spend her life with. And… I’d like to know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For better or worse, she had to </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jamie finally looked at her, blue eyes betraying almost everything, and the confession came when she shifted her gaze towards the bedroom door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eddie…?” Felicia had to say it out loud to be sure through a hissing inhale, watching Jamie’s reaction. She didn’t nod, or move at all, but her mouth started to quiver. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>mad,” she mumbled. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m...I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>mad, I… just...” Felicia gulped, swallowing down something sour lingering at the back of her throat, and let out a heavy sigh to try and equalise her emotions. Just for a moment, just to convince Jamie that everything was fine. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you for telling me, Jamie.” And she meant it, patting her shoulder through the covers. “You did a good thing. Get yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She left the cozy warmth of her bed and covered her pyjamas with a jacket, finding her shoes out in the living room where she’d left them. And there Eddie was too, lying where she’d left him on the couch, stretched out with a modest collection of cushions under his head, like he was trying to sleep. With how big he was he had to double up his whole body just to fit, and even then almost half of it was hanging off the edge. Against all instincts, Felicia resisted the urge to shove him over onto the floor, instead choosing the diplomatic option of standing over him with her arms crossed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eddie.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He snorted as his eyes snapped open, and he flew upright like he’d just been splashed with cold water. Which was another thing Felicia had resisted doing (if only because Eddie’s scream of shock would have spooked Jamie).</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I talk with you outside?” She didn’t wait for his answer before she started pulling her shoes on, turning her back so he couldn’t yet see how much she wanted to throttle him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh… sure. Outside the door, or…?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Outside as in, </span>
  <em>
    <span>outside</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” She pointed up at the ceiling, and said nothing more as she stormed past him towards the front door. She heard him following behind as she climbed the stairs to the roof, but she didn’t look until she was past the maintenance door. It was a freezing cold night, even with her jacket wrapped tight around her, and her breath came out in thick clouds that matched her hair as she walked to the edge of the roof. No-one would hear them up here. No-one she cared much about, at least.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, Felicia?” Eddie was still behind her, and it sounded like he was keeping his distance from her. “What’s this abo-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“WHAT THE FUCK?!” She couldn’t hold it in anymore. Having him standing there, knowing who he was, knowing what they had apparently </span>
  <em>
    <span>done… </span>
  </em>
  <span>That was why she chose the roof. So she could scream her head off all she wanted, until things started to make some sense again. If they ever would.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?!” Eddie looked at her like she’d just slapped him. “What’d I do?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So he knew it was his fault (cause who else’s would it be?). It didn’t calm Felicia down, not as she paced back and forth and shivered in the cold night breeze even as her blood simmered beneath her skin. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She… Jamie is… you and I-?!” There was a sound coming low in her throat, the sour taste making itself present and well accounted for, and she wanted to scream or cry or throw something off the side of the roof.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah.” Eddie’s voice was flat, defeated. “She told you…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck?</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” It was the only thing Felicia could think to say, her mind left as a broken record as it tried and failed to process the impossible. She’d had a kid with Eddie Brock, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>Venom</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Not only had she slept with him- at least once, likely even more- she’d birthed his child, she’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>raised </span>
  </em>
  <span>a child in a house with a symbiote at its heart. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I told her not to,” Eddie said meekly, as if that was really supposed to help anything. Felicia tried not to look at him as she kept turning back and forth, keeping herself moving lest she did something stupid in her stupor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I need to sit down. I need to lie down, I need to fucking- I don’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” She didn’t want to be angry. She didn’t want to be sad, she didn’t want to think about it, but how could she not?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If it makes you feel better,” Eddie offered, “I had about the same reaction too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you knew about it the whole fucking time?!” Felicia didn’t even know why she asked when it was so obvious. The secret conversations, the fact that Jamie felt safe with him. The fact that she’d gone to him in the first place, even. Eddie only looked slightly guilty when she risked a glance at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” he sighed, “and I never said anything about it cause I knew you’d freak the fuck out like this, and that’s the last thing any of us need right now!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was right. She hated that he was right.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck else am I supposed to do?!” she accused. “What, you just weren’t going to tell me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No! I mean… if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> to, yes, but I thought she’d be home before… </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Eddie held his head in his hand as he turned away, and Felicia finally felt her legs start to buckle. Her body was catching up with the strain that her mind was under, shutting down from the ground up. She fell onto the rough asphalt, one leg hanging near the roof’s edge, and she just wanted the wind to sweep her away into the night. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>unbelievable…</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Maybe she just shouldn’t have asked at all. The question would have still burned in her mind for years, long after Jamie returned home, simmering unanswered and submerged in curiosity, and it would have been better that way. Everyone knows what curiosity did to the cat, after all. Really, she had no-one to blame but herself. It wasn’t Jamie’s fault who her parents were. It wasn’t Eddie’s fault that there was someone out there with his name, and his symbiote, and his genes, who fell for a woman called Felicia Hardy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What kind of different man was he, that she would give her heart to him? Or, what kind of different woman was she that he would trust her? That was what scared her most of all. Not knowing how much alike she was to the other Felicia. Not knowing what it all said about her, if anything at all. Not knowing if she really had any right to call Jamie her daughter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look, Felicia.” Eddie closed the gap between them somewhat, taking a seat on the ground at the other side of her. “You don’t think I was just as freaked out? I get it. I’m a monster, and I’m insane, and you’re disgusted at the sight of me like everyone else is. I’m used to it. When that girl came up to me saying I was her dad, I thought someone was pulling a prank on me. Hell, I thought she was fucking</span>
  <em>
    <span> bait </span>
  </em>
  <span>for a trap or something. I know I’m the last fucking person on this or any other Earth who should be a father.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Felicia wanted to interrupt, before he went on making any more assumptions about what she apparently thought of him. But she didn’t know what corrections she’d make, didn’t know if she’d even want to admit them at that moment. And, besides, Eddie clearly had a point he wanted to make. She wanted to hear it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But on </span>
  <em>
    <span>one</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them,” he said, “by some twisted miracle, there’s a me that </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>good enough to be one. And he’s not really me, and I’m not really him, and I have no idea what he’s like, but that little girl is proof at least that somewhere out there there’s still a sliver of me that’s human, that… that deserves to be...” Felicia heard him gulp, and when she turned her head he was looking over the edge of the roof with his hand over his mouth. He looked like he was trying not to cry. And when he inhaled, his lungs shaking his breaths, Felicia knew that he really was trying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t think you’re a monster, Eddie.” Her throat felt sore from her previous hysterics, so when she spoke it was more like a whisper that she didn’t think Eddie even heard. But he turned his head towards her; slightly, slowly. She couldn’t tell if he believed her, but he looked like he wanted to. And she hoped that he did, because it was the truth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My point is…” Eddie coughed, clearing the rubble from his throat. “Jamie is not </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> kid. She was created by two completely different people from you and me. We don’t know what they’re like, what their </span>
  <em>
    <span>universe </span>
  </em>
  <span>is like. But whoever they are, they’re probably worried sick wondering where the hell their baby is. So… however we feel, we need to get over it and focus on what really matters. And that’s getting her back where she belongs. Okay?” He picked himself up, still standing near the edge of the roof. There was no room for fear of heights in their line of work. Felicia had learned that quickly on her first night, learning how to ignore the long drop to the ground. This was more or less the same principle. Don’t think about what will happen if you step wrong, if you lose your balance. Just focus on getting to the other side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, you’re right.” And, this time, she didn’t hate admitting that he was right. He offered an arm to help her up, and she took hold of it as she stood. Then, when she was on her own two feet, she punched it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ow!” He held a hand over his elbow as he stared at her, more in shock than any real pain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s for not fucking telling me yourself and leaving her to do it for you,” she told him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay… okay, yeah. I deserved that, I guess…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And not one fucking word of this to Peter.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You really think I’d tell </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” he scoffed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not really. But I like to be sure.” She turned her back and from the absurdity of it all- Eddie, the so-called father of her child, almost shedding tears, her almost accepting it- she had to smile. She couldn’t see herself sleeping much that night, but, strangely, she felt a slight sense of ease about letting Eddie stay over. Letting him be around Jamie. He was her father, after all. Where else would he be while she was here?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“One other thing, Felicia.” Eddie called after her, waiting for her to turn around before he continued. “So that there’s no more secrets… Jamie has a symbiote.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The news didn’t surprise her as much as it should have. Maybe she was just too exhausted for it to have the usual effect on her, so it was just as well Eddie didn’t wait to tell her. “Of course she does...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It spawned from mine,” he explained. “That’s how I knew… that she was really my kid.” He looked away as he said it, somehow embarrassed by admitting it out loud. Jamie’s eyes were only a second giveaway, then.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Does it have a name?” Felicia felt like it was another thing she had to know. With Symby having a name, it wouldn’t be much polite to just call Jamie’s ‘the symbiote’.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sleeper. He’s like a big brother to her. I told her to keep him hidden, so… there weren’t any complications.” He shrugged, clearly knowing that things couldn’t possibly get more complicated with or without another symbiote. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So it’s… bonded to her? Like you and Symby?” Felicia didn’t know what to think of a symbiote being like family, didn’t know what to think of </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything </span>
  </em>
  <span>about it. She didn’t even know if she was asking the right questions, they were just the only ones she could come up with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know the specifics,” Eddie admitted. “But yeah. Looks like it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So that was another thing Felicia would just have to deal with come morning. She hadn’t seen any hints that Jamie was a symbiote host, nothing that in retrospect was an obvious sign. Then again, Eddie usually kept his under good control nowadays. If Jamie had been bonded with hers long enough that it was like a sibling to her, then she would only bring him out when they both wanted to be out. She kind of wanted to meet him, before Jamie had to leave. Maybe she’d get the chance, since Jamie didn’t have to think she’d get in trouble for it. But symbiotes usually were trouble all on their own, anyway. Different planet, different universe, it made little difference. For all they knew, Sleeper was part of the reason Jamie ended up stranded on another world, maybe even part of the nightmares she kept-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was it, though. That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>exactly </span>
  </em>
  <span>it. Felicia felt her blood go cold as she stopped before the maintenance door, and it wasn’t because of the midnight wind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Eddie.” She turned around and grabbed his arm (the one she’d spared) just as he approached. “Peter said that Inheritors go after people with spider powers. And your symbiote gives you all those same powers.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah…?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t you see? Jamie is a target because of her symbiote!” Her voice was a hush, as if the Inheritors might overhear her if she spoke too loud. Eddie’s eyes went wide, and the whites seemed to bulge out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh shit. Oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>shit</span>
  </em>
  <span>… what do we do?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We shouldn’t tell her. Not just yet, at least, it’ll just scare her. Fuck…” She wished she’d gotten some way to contact Peter, even just a burner cellphone he’d throw away a day later. They’d have to wait till morning to ask him, to even explain that Jamie had a symbiote at all, but what if by morning it was too late…?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You think they might try and come for her tonight?” Only Eddie could say outloud what Felicia was thinking, fearing and anticipating all at once.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Peter didn’t really describe how they work. But…” There was no telling if they’d come, when they’d come, what they’d do to her. If they caused a commotion, surely Peter would eventually notice and show up. But by then, who’s to say how much help he could even be? All Felicia knew was that every second that Jamie spent on their Earth was putting her at risk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll stay awake,” Eddie declared. “Me and Symby, we’ll keep watch over her. If she’s having a nightmare, we’ll wake her up. Should give us enough time to...” He trailed off, cause neither of them knew what they’d actually have to do if an Inheritor came knocking at the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ll be exhausted in the morning,” Felicia pointed out, and it was a serious concern. If he passed out tomorrow, he’d be useless in any fight that might come up. If the Inheritors didn’t come tonight, they could still come any time before Jamie’s sent home. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll just sleep on the plane,” Eddie assured. “I’m used to all-nighters anyway.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was one thing Felicia could believe. A man like him likely didn’t get much sleep anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well… alright. But if you start falling asleep, you wake me up so I can take over.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So that was that, then. They were parents, and they were trying to keep their daughter safe from multi-dimensional spider vampires. Felicia would deal with the therapy bills once it was all over. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were silent as they descended the stairs back to her apartment, and miraculously none of the neighbours appeared to scold them for causing a racket. Even more miraculously, Jamie was fast asleep in the bed, covers and stuffed dog locked in her unconscious grip. Even knowing he was there somewhere, Felicia couldn’t see any sign of Sleeper. Maybe he was sleeping too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Still don’t know how the fuck the two of</span>
  <em>
    <span> us</span>
  </em>
  <span> would get together to make her,” she whispered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know either,” Eddie said. “But it happened, apparently. The proof is lying right there.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That she was. With Felicia’s hair and Eddie’s eyes, and a symbiote that could have taken after either, or none of them. Felicia wondered if Eddie had spoken to Sleeper. If, because of that, he knew Jamie better than she ever could.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Think she’ll stay asleep?” Eddie asked, and of course that was the last thing Felicia was actually thinking of. She delayed her response with a yawn.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“For her sake, I hope so.” Then her mind paused, realising Eddie really was just going to stand there all night with an eye on their kid. And Felicia didn’t really want to sleep with him watching her as well. The thought of </span>
  <em>
    <span>sharing </span>
  </em>
  <span>a bed with him was enough of a shock for one night...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How about I take the couch while you stay in here with her?” It was a question that wasn’t really a question, though Eddie still gave an answer in a shrug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you want. Your house, your rules.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So she carefully extracted two unused pillows from beside Jamie, grabbing a blanket from her closet to make her night on the couch a little more bearable. But at least she’d be allowed to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>some</span>
  </em>
  <span> sleep, unlike poor Eddie. Though if he did doze off, maybe Symby could keep watch instead. Which was probably why he volunteered in the first place, knowing he really had four pairs of eyes to keep on Jamie.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He really did care about her. Even knowing who he was to her, who she was to him, it was almost stunning to think of. And did Jamie see much of her real father in him? Did she love her parents, and… did they really love each other?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Too many questions for one night, for one lifetime even. Felicia hoped she’d forget them in the morning. But as she was getting the sofa prepared, fluffing out the pillows and spreading out the blanket, she realised what Eddie’s vigil was really about. He was trying to prove something to himself. Knowing there was a part of them out there that was a father, he wanted to show that he was capable of being one to. And, until now, Jamie hadn’t even been allowed to see him as one. He’d been doing his best, not knowing if it was right or wrong. Even though she knew nothing about his own family, she was sure it wasn’t a good story. Like the bad memories in San Francisco. She felt like she had to say something. Some small acknowledgement that she knew what he was doing, what he was feeling, and that she understood it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“For what it’s worth, Eddie,” she eventually said, summoning his attention from the bedroom doorway, “you’re pretty good at the whole Dad thing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eddie blinked, once and twice and then three times in a single second, and he inhaled deeply. The unshed tears were threatening to spill over again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...You’re a pretty good Mom too, Felicia,” he said back. “For what it’s worth.” Then he quickly glanced away, as if doubting whether he should have said that, before turning all attention back to Jamie. Felicia was glad he was facing away, so he didn’t see her mouth wavering against all her exhausted control.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>More than you know, Eddie.’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Again, they didn’t say good night to each other. It didn’t seem necessary, with even more important things left mostly unsaid.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The moment we've all been waiting for has finally come and gone. Phew. Not sure how much more of this there is in store; maybe another two or more chapters, though they might take a while to come to fruition.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jamie didn’t expect to sleep through the night, not even with her brother’s help. It was bad enough expecting nightmares again, now she had to deal with the guilt of breaking her promise to Eddie. Sure, he wasn’t her <em> real </em> dad, but a promise was still a promise. And he’d done a lot for her, even though he didn’t <em> need </em> to do anything. </p><p>So, of course, to repay him Jamie went ahead and let out the one thing he’d told her not to say. </p><p>And now Felicia was mad at her. And she’d probably found out she had a symbiote, and she’d kick her and Sleeper out on the street, and they’d never get back home, and-and the scary man in black would come get them-</p><p>
  <span class="Sleeper"><b> <em>“Hey, Jamie, hey. I’m here. It’s okay.”</em></b></span> 
</p><p>Sleeper’s voice was distant at first, so Jamie knew he had helped put her to sleep (if only for a little while). He was here, in her heart and her brain, all the most important places. No one was going to kick them out. No one was going to take him away. </p><p>...But there was still someone watching them both. Jamie cracked a single eye open as she held her stuffed dog tighter, and she saw the lamp was still switched on with a large shadow sitting beside it.</p><p>“Eddie...?”</p><p>He’d been staring at a blank wall with his arms crossed over his chest until she let out the whisper, and then he looked at her like he wasn’t nearly as angry as he should have been. </p><p>“Trouble sleeping?” he asked. Jamie nodded as she sat up in Felicia’s bed, only now realising it was empty. </p><p>“Why aren’t <em> you </em> asleep?” Had he been sitting there, waiting for her to wake up, just so he could tell her how much she’d messed up? No, he would have just waited ‘til morning so it would have the full effect. And, most importantly, he still didn’t <em> look </em>angry.     Jamie knew exactly what her dad looked like when he was mad (usually when he was around Uncle Pete, or Uncle Flash, or Uncle Cletus… but if he was always so mad at them, then why were they even allowed to be her uncles?).</p><p>“I promised Felicia we’d keep an eye on you,” Eddie told her. “Me and Symby. I don’t need much sleep anyway.”</p><p>Jamie could believe that, since she never saw adults having to take naps. And maybe that was why Felicia wasn’t around- she just didn’t need to sleep. That was the nice explanation. The other, more likely one was that… she just didn’t want to be near Jamie. </p><p>“Is Felicia… mad?” She didn’t want to ask, but she had to cause otherwise she’d just carry on thinking that Felicia was, cause of <em> course </em>she was mad, and of course she now hated Jamie and didn’t want to talk to her ever again. </p><p>And Eddie thought that was funny! He smiled, at least, which was basically as bad as laughing right at her. </p><p>“No, Jamie,” he said. “She’s not mad at you, at least.”</p><p>Jamie didn’t think he was lying, and neither did Sleeper. But it made no sense.</p><p>“But… I did something bad,” she confessed even though Eddie must have already known, as she pulled the bedcovers around her in a cat-patterned cocoon. “You <em> told </em> me not to tell her, but she asked and-and she figured it out and-”</p><p>And now she was getting upset, for real. All because of her own big fat mouth. If she’d just said Felicia was wrong, or made up someone <em> else </em>to be her dad, someone that Felicia would have had no chance of ever running into-</p><p>Like John Cena! She didn’t even like him, but why couldn’t <em> he </em> have just been her dad?! </p><p>“Hey, hey, Jamie, calm down. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Eddie was holding her shoulders, cause apparently she’d started crying. Or he thought she was about to start, and that was reason enough for him to freak out. She and Sleeper could feel another presence in his hands despite his light grip, the squirming of Goo Mom also trying to calm them both. Symby always knew how to do that, at least the one back home did. But this one was trying, even if Jamie couldn’t hear her, which was enough to make her think that the two symbiotes weren’t very different from each other. </p><p>“You didn’t… get in trouble with her?” she asked Eddie, rubbing at her eyes with her sleeves (just to get the grit of brief sleep out of them, she was <em> not </em> crying, she was <em> not </em>a stupid baby getting upset over stupid things). </p><p>“I did,” Eddie admitted. “But only cause I didn’t tell her myself. And I deserved it. But everything’s alright now. And you don’t have to hide Sleeper anymore.”</p><p>“I don’t...?”</p><p><span class="Sleeper"><b> <em>“You don’t?” </em></b></span> Sleeper bubbled out of Jamie’s hand at the news, a lime-tinged wave of excitement emerging from her skin. </p><p>But Felicia<em> hated </em>symbiotes. Even if she knew Jamie had one, wouldn’t she have wanted him kept hidden away? That was what Jamie had learned to expect of other people- even if they didn’t outright hate aliens, it was still a good idea to keep her brother out of sight when they weren’t somewhere safe. It was one of the first and most important lessons she’d learned, right after “don’t brag about Dad being Venom and Mom being Black Cat”.</p><p>“How about…” Eddie leaned in a little closer, like they were conspiring something evil together, “in the morning, when she wakes up, you introduce her to him? She won’t be scared, or mad. I promise.”</p><p>
  <b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“I dunno about that… sounds too good to be true.”</em></span> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> ‘I think so too. But if she knows about you anyway…’ </em>
</p><p>Jamie felt her face scrunch up. It sometimes did that when she was trying to talk to Sleeper in her head (and it made people at school look at her weirdly, so she tried not to do it unless she absolutely had to). </p><p>Eddie wouldn’t lie to her. And he wasn’t angry. He and Felicia had probably talked over him being her dad, and they didn’t hate each other at the end of it. That had to mean something…</p><p>But adults were weird. Even Sleeper agreed with that, and he wasn’t even human. Adults from a different universe were probably even weirder. But Eddie seemed alright. Even if he wasn’t her real dad.</p><p>“...Pinky promise?” Jamie held up her smallest finger to make the promise official, making sure Eddie knew just how serious it was. He appraised the offered finger, before giving his own (which was easily as thick as Jamie’s thumb) and wrapping it around hers.</p><p>“Pinky promise,” he swore, and Jamie felt a little better about having to face her not-Mom tomorrow. </p><p>“Okay... where is Felicia?” She probably should have asked that first, but she’d been busy with convincing herself that Felicia hated her forever.</p><p>“On the couch.” Eddie inclined his head to the bedroom door left slightly ajar. “Think she didn’t want me watching her sleep. But <em> you </em> should definitely be sleeping. You might be home by tomorrow evening. Don’t wanna pass out before then.”</p><p>Jamie wanted to pout even though he was right, and she <em> wanted </em> to be home by then, and she <em> was </em>sleepy (but that was probably her brother’s fault). </p><p>“Right... thanks, Eddie. And Symby.” She turned over and wrapped the covers around herself, making sure her plush dog was locked tight in her arms. She’d bring it home with her, as a souvenir and a reminder that the last few days weren’t just another weird dream.</p><p>But then she turned back to Eddie, with a burning question that had just popped into her head.</p><p>“Should I have said that John Cena was my dad instead?”</p><p>Eddie looked like he couldn’t tell if she was being serious- but why not? It was the most serious thing she had left to ask!</p><p>“I… think that might have just freaked her out a little bit more,” he said.</p><p>“She hates Super Cena too?”<br/>
“Sure. Let’s go with that.”</p><p>That was good enough for Jamie. But she had just one more thing that needed closure, before she could let Sleeper drift her away.</p><p>“So... I did the right thing? By telling the truth?”</p><p>Eddie looked away for a moment. But he smiled. “Of course you did. Now get some rest.”</p><p>And with her mind at rest, Jamie finally could let her body do the same.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <b>xx</b>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Eddie, for God’s sake, will you just sit down and eat something?”</p><p>“No way, I’m not gonna eat the kid’s pancakes while she’s still asleep!”</p><p>“Then have some bacon or something.”</p><p>“But what if she wants some of that too?”<br/>
“There’s enough here for all three of us!”</p><p>“You’re only saying that cause you don’t know how much that kid can eat…”</p><p>Jamie heard the voices when she woke up, but they went silent as soon as she opened her eyes. She didn’t feel anyone’s eyes on her this time, but it was like they knew she was awake...</p><p><b> <span class="Sleeper"><em>“I smell breakfast.” </em></span> </b>Sleeper gurgled in her stomach, pushing her out of bed with his tendrils coming out of her shoulders.</p><p>“You mean <em> we </em> smell breakfast with <em> my </em>nose,” Jamie reminded him- for all the Klyntar’s so-called superior senses, it was still funny to think that they couldn’t smell at all without their host. They could still taste without noses (somehow) and that was all they ever needed. Jamie supposed that in the vacuum of space knowing whether or not you’d farted wasn’t much of an issue. </p><p>As she climbed down from the empty bed, leaving her stuffed dog behind to guard her pillow, Sleeper pooled under her feet to form thick slippers. She walked silently to the living room, then to the kitchen attached to it where Eddie and Felicia were probably still bickering (just a lot more quietly this time).</p><p>But when Jamie reached them, they weren’t saying anything. They must have heard her coming despite her stealthy slipper sneaking. </p><p>“Morning, Jamie.”</p><p>“Morning.”</p><p>Felicia sat at the table in a white robe while Eddie stood near the oven, which was covered in frying pans of different sizes.</p><p>“Hi.” Jamie slowly stepped out from the doorframe towards the table, and she saw it was covered in the food Sleeper had kicked her out of bed for.</p><p>“Finally got those fresh pancakes you wanted,” Felicia said, pushing a plate towards her as she sat down. She was starving, of course, but she remembered that Eddie had held back from eating even though he was probably hungry too. So she cut the stack of pancakes in half, right down the middle, and moved the left half to the edge of the plate towards him.</p><p>“You can have some if you want, Eddie,” she offered, only now shovelling some of her own stack into her mouth. “I don’t wanna throw up on the plane.”</p><p>Eddie seemed surprised by the offer, but with another glance at Felicia (like he was getting extra permission) he swooped in with a fork and took some of his share.</p><p>“You get airsick?” he asked, just before he popped the helping in his mouth. Jamie had to wait until she stopped chewing to answer.</p><p>“Sometimes,” she said with a gulp as she reached for a glass of orange juice. “I don’t like being locked inside places.”</p><p>Eddie seemed to grimace as he swallowed. “I know the feeling.”</p><p>Felicia gave him a look, one of those weird indecipherable ones adults sometimes throw around. All Jamie could tell was that her eyebrow was raised really high, and Eddie didn’t want to look directly at her. </p><p>“So, Jamie.” Felicia eventually left Eddie alone and folded her fingers under her chin. “Eddie told me your brother’s here with you.”</p><p>Jamie paused mid-chew of another pancake stack topped with bacon. She’d thought she’d have a little more time to prepare... well, technically she’d had all night to prepare, but she couldn’t do very much while she was asleep.  </p><p>But it was like Eddie had said. Felicia didn’t sound mad, or scared. The power of the pinky promise...</p><p>“Does he want to come out and say hi?” Felicia asked, as if she really wasn’t terrified at all. Which was a completely foreign concept to Jamie, even though she’d spent hours at home thinking of friends asking about her symbiote and thinking she was so cool for having one… as if that would ever really happen. But it <em> was </em>happening! Right now! Which probably meant something was gonna go horribly horribly wrong!</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“I don’t know if I want to,”</em></span> </b> Sleeper admitted, cause he was the smart one who <em> knew </em> something was gonna go horribly horribly wrong. <b> <span class="Sleeper"><em> “I usually just scare people when I do that.”</em></span> </b></p><p>Which was true. He remembered the Parent’s Night Panic Incident as well as Jamie did (it <em> was </em>mostly his fault, after all, trying to hitch a ride on Mom’s clothes without her noticing so he could see what all the teachers were really saying about his sister. It had worked right up until they got to the math teacher, who had a candy bar somewhere in his jacket...).</p><p>“...He’s shy.” Jamie took another huge mouthful of bacon so she wouldn’t need to elaborate on that. Felicia just tilted her head to one side, and Eddie looked like he was struggling not to eat the rest of the table (or maybe that was Goo Mom. Or maybe it was both of them. Jamie knew that it was sometimes hard to tell the difference between what she or Sleeper wanted). </p><p>“What kind of food does he like?” Felicia’s question snapped Jamie’s drifting attention back to her, and it took her a moment to remember she was still asking about Sleeper. </p><p>“Anything with sugar in it.” Jamie shrugged- that was what her brother always seemed to be craving. Dad used to ask her questions like that, like if Sleeper was altering her tastebuds or  making her eat anything she wouldn’t normally eat (especially meat. He was always worried about Sleeper eating too much meat… but no, all her brother ever really wanted was cake or cookies or ice cream. Which suited Jamie just fine). </p><p>“So, like maple syrup?” Jamie saw that Felicia was holding an amber bottle of the stuff, just one second before a black tendril shot out from her shoulder to grab it from across the table. Felicia (and Eddie, still standing at the oven behind her) looked just as surprised as Jamie was embarrassed. It really <em> was </em>the Parent’s Night Incident all over again...</p><p>“Sorry.” Jamie snatched the syrup from her brother’s hand before he could start guzzling it. “He’s a little <em> rude </em> sometimes.” She gritted her teeth at him, while he just flicked his tongue out from her jaw like they were both still toddlers fighting over toys.</p><p><b> <span class="Sleeper"><em>“You’re just jealous that sugar can’t make me get fat,”</em></span> </b> Sleeper jeered. <b> <span class="Sleeper"> <em> “That’s the fatal flaw of you humans, y’know!”</em></span> </b></p><p>‘<em> Oh yeah?’ </em> Jamie let her face crumple as she shot back at him in her head. <em> “Well, I can make it so you’ll never know what fresh baked cookies smell like ever again!’ </em></p><p>
  <b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“Y...Y-You take that back, you would never do that…right?”</em></span> </b>
</p><p>“So how long have you… had him around for?” Felicia recovered quickly from the shock of seeing Sleeper for the first time (at least, she <em> looked </em>recovered. For all Jamie knew she was probably freaking out in her head. And she was probably wondering why Jamie’s face had gone weird for a moment). </p><p>“Since I was a baby.” Jamie could only remember those early days through Sleeper’s eyes, but that only made them sharper in her mind. He never left out a single detail. “My… parents had said they wanted to wait until I was older before we met. But they were keeping him at a lab, and he got out of his cell when I was there with Mom and Dad, and... that’s when we bonded.” She probably wouldn’t have been able to explain it even if she could remember the day perfectly. He was her brother, and she was his sister. Even though they weren’t even the same species, even though she’d barely even known how to walk and he had spent his whole life until then locked up in a glass cage, they knew that they would keep each other safe. It had always been as simple as that.</p><p>“I see.” Felicia said those words, even though it was obvious she couldn’t see or understand any of it. Jamie had come to expect that kind of reaction, even though this was the first time she’d actually had to explain Sleeper to anyone. And it wasn’t like he could help explain himself. </p><p>“It’s weird, right?” she asked with a bloated sigh. “You think it’s weird.”</p><p>“I don’t think it’s weird.” Eddie probably said it to make Jamie feel better, but it just made Felicia look at him in a way that made him pretend to find the window over the sink suddenly very interesting.</p><p>“And neither do I,” Felicia assured as she turned back to Jamie. “It’s just… surprising, to hear about a symbiote bonding with someone when they’re so young.”</p><p>“You said they kept Sleeper in a lab?” Eddie still kept studying the window as he asked, like he didn’t want to provoke Felicia’s wrath or like he was considering jumping out of it in case he did. </p><p>“He was born a few months before I was,” Jamie said. “Since I wasn’t around to be his host, Alchemax looked after him until then.”</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“More like they kept me as a pet experiment,” </em></span> </b> Sleeper corrected with an agitated growl. <b><span class="Sleeper"> <em> “If you hadn’t showed up that day, I’d have hidden in a test tube and hitched a ride out the building in someone’s field kit.”</em> </span></b></p><p>As if he’d have even made it out of the research department with that plan. No, they both knew that Jamie coming to him was always meant to be his escape route.</p><p>“Alchemax…?” Eddie finally looked away from the window, like the word had broken him out of a trance. It was a word that seemed to pique Felicia’s curiosity as well, but Jamie couldn’t tell what they were both thinking as they shared a look that was clearly supposed to mean <em> something </em>.</p><p>Freaking adults, man. Even her real parents were impossible to figure out sometimes, all because they refused to use <em> words </em>like normal people. </p><p>“It must be nice having someone with you all the time,” Felicia said to Jamie, after a few moments of ‘that look’ with Eddie. Now, Jamie could tell right away when someone was trying to change the subject just to avoid questions (since she was an expert of the art all by herself), and usually she never let the someone get away with it. But this was Felicia, her not-Mom, who was trying really hard to be cool with all the weird stuff that had been forced upon her. And she’d even made breakfast. So Jamie wasn’t going to go and ruin things by being difficult and nosy, no matter how much Sleeper tried to tempt her curiosity.</p><p>“Sometimes,” she answered with another shrug. “But then he won’t let me stay up too late, or he’ll have me eat like three candy bars all at once-”</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“You were gonna eat them anyway,” </em></span> </b>Sleeper huffed.</p><p>“But not all in one sitting! I was saving one for after school!” Jamie hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but of course by the time she realised she was saying anything it was far too late to do anything about it. Felicia didn’t look as confused as she should have been, and Eddie just looked amused.</p><p>“Yeah,” Felicia sighed, even smiling for some reason. “Siblings are like that. Even non-human ones, I guess.”</p><p>She spoke as if she had personal experience, though Jamie never had any ‘real’ aunties or uncles in her world. But this wasn’t <em> her </em>world at all, so any differences were worth investigating at any chance (since, hopefully, by that evening she wouldn’t have any more chances to ask).</p><p>“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Felicia?” </p><p>“No.” Felicia didn’t seem hungry, but she took a long gulp of whatever was in her coffee mug (probably… coffee. Yeah, that checked out). “What about your Mom? Did she have any?”</p><p>Jamie shook her head. “Dad doesn’t have any, either.”</p><p>And Felicia didn’t say anything to that. Jamie thought that she’d just run out of questions, until she saw that Eddie was looking away again, this time actually facing away from them both. And then she remembered that her symbiote was only the <em> second </em> bombshell that Felicia had dropped on her in the last twelve hours. The D-word wasn’t forbidden anymore thanks to Jamie’s slip-up last night, but she still should’ve known that it was better left unsaid.</p><p><b> <span class="Sleeper"><em>“I think that’s what they call an ‘elephant in a room’,” </em></span> </b> Sleeper helpfully informed her. <b><span class="Sleeper"> <em>“But you couldn’t even fit a baby one in this kitchen…”</em> </span></b></p><p>Jamie only half listened to her brother while her face started to burn up. </p><p>“Oh... did I make things weird again?” Damn you, John Cena, for not being her dad! And for winning all the time! But mostly the dad thing!!</p><p>“No, sweetie, no,” Felicia rushed to say as she rose out of her chair. “I just never expected…” She bit her lip, and though Jamie thought she was going to turn around to face Eddie (who was trying to blend into the wall) she never did. </p><p>“...Anyway.” Felicia drained her cup with a veiled grimace. “We should get to the airport. Peter probably won’t let us book another flight if we miss our first one. I need to check over my suitcase.” She said all of that while she was already moving out of the kitchen towards the bedroom, leaving Jamie and Eddie to pick over the breakfast scraps and wonder what had gone wrong.</p><p>Well, Jamie didn’t have to wonder. She knew exactly what had gone wrong- she’d opened her big mouth, and Felicia had found a symbiote inside it, and she’d done the normal thing and tried to get as far away from her as possible.</p><p>“Are you sure she doesn’t hate us, Eddie?” she asked, even though she knew he’d probably lie if he knew the true answer. He replaced Felicia in the seat opposite her, sighing as his giant frame creaked in the chair and he pulled a plate towards him. </p><p>“There’s only one of us that she probably hates, Jamie,” he said, ripping off a piece of cold bacon with a surge of Venomous teeth. “And it definitely isn’t you.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was almost five PM when they landed in San Francisco. Jamie managed to sleep through most of the flight, huddled under a black-green blanket on a seat between Eddie and Felicia. She seemed calm despite the still-present threat of nightmares, though if any Inheritors showed up it wouldn’t be easy trying to fight them off onboard a packed airplane. Eddie kept his guard up with Symby while Felicia alternated between staring out the window and flipping through the cheapest book she could find in the JFK airport store. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk, despite how much Eddie felt like he had to say </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He’d stayed awake all night, as promised, watching over Jamie, and he didn’t even know Felicia had woken up until he smelled breakfast coming from the kitchen. They hadn’t had the chance to give much more than a curt ‘morning’ and a minor squabble over Eddie’s eating habits to each other before Jamie rose from her slumber. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But even if Eddie could think of anything… Parker was sitting right behind them. As if he was intent on keeping an eye on them all, though every time Eddie craned his neck back he seemed to have his face buried in a book or pamphlet or something (and Symby didn’t want to watch him for very long by herself). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Stupid fucking spider senses. </span>
</p><p>The heat in San Fran was familiar and stifling, even in the middle of autumn with the setting sun. Symby could keep Eddie warm or cool no matter what it was like outside, but he knew people would look at him weird if he wasn’t dressed right. He slipped into the first bathroom they came across, so Symby had privacy to give him more appropriate clothes, and when he emerged he saw that Jamie had gotten the same idea from Sleeper. With Felicia looking casually like a supermodel in her sunglasses and shorts, they all looked like a family on vacation. </p><p>(Except that Peter was there too, but Eddie would just have to ignore him once they got to the motel).</p><p>“Can we go to the beach?” Jamie looked out at the nearby ocean as she grasped Eddie’s hand, while Felicia and Peter were trying to find a cab that wasn’t stuck in gridlock.</p><p>“When you get back home, sure,” Eddie told her, trying to keep his eyes occupied even as he remembered the last time he’d been here at this very airport. He’d hoped it <em> would </em> have been the last time for him. It had changed a lot since then. <br/>“There’s no beaches in New York.” Jamie pouted as she started swinging Eddie’s arm back and forth in small arcs.</p><p>“And that’s just how I like it,” he sighed. He hated any reminders of where he’d been raised. Sand in his socks, sunburn on his shoulders, dry palm trees and baked pavements. He hoped the Eddie Jamie knew didn’t mind those things as much. </p><p>“Don’t you know, Jamie?” Felicia must have been eavesdropping, and she still held her hand up for a cab as she leaned down to address the kid. “Eddie <em> hates </em> sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating-”</p><p>“Yeah, and it gets everywhere,” Eddie grumbled, though at first he was grateful that at least <em> one </em>person understood his grudge against the beaches of his childhood, until he saw that Felicia was laughing for some reason. </p><p><b> <em>“I think she’s making fun of you, love.”</em> </b> Symby let out a cautious hiss as she surged under the skin along his clenched jaw. </p><p>
  <em> ‘Well, let her. Better than her trying to kill us so we can’t tell anyone we have a kid with her.’ </em>
</p><p>Though she might have just been waiting until Jamie was safe back home to try that… Eddie made a note to keep his room door locked.</p><p>When they finally got out of the airport traffic to the motel Peter had found, it was seven PM and dark outside and, miraculously, no one had tried to strangle each other. None of them would try it in front of the kid, at least. </p><p>“So that’s two single rooms and one twin.” The front-desk employee handed them each their keys- Felicia would stay in the twin with Jamie, which was down the hall from the two singles for Peter and Eddie (which were right next to each other, which only confirmed Eddie’s suspicions that Peter was definitely trying to monitor him). They were still foolishly hoping that Jamie would be home by that evening, but considering Felicia’s penchant for bad luck it made sense to have some kind of insurance policy if the kid had to stick around for another night. </p><p>Eddie just hoped the nightmares would stay away from her again. But, even knowing about Jamie’s symbiote, at least Felicia didn’t seem to have any issues with sharing a room with her if it came to that. </p><p>So really, the only thing to worry about was Parker. As usual. But so long as he never found out anything more about Jamie before he got her home, everything would work out fine. Maybe. So long as Eddie and Felicia both agreed to never speak of it ever again. </p><p>“We should wait until at least nine, so then the university’s more likely to be empty.” Peter was talking to Felicia as they both stood out in the parking lot, while Eddie chose to linger near the reception building. </p><p>Felicia fanned herself in the evening humid-heat with the brim of her huge sunhat as she leaned against the motel wall. “Why does it have to be empty?”</p><p>“Well… because we’re gonna have to break in,” Parker reminded her. “Didn’t I tell you that?”</p><p>“I thought you knew the guy who runs the campus?”</p><p>“I do. But... I don’t want to get him in trouble. So we’re just gonna… help ourselves to his equipment for the evening.”</p><p>“So we’re gonna steal it.”<br/>“We’re gonna borrow it.”</p><p>“So we’re stealing it.”</p><p>Peter sighed. “Yes, Felicia, we’re stealing it.” </p><p>Her teeth caught the flickering light of the halogen lamps overhead as she grinned. “That’s all you had to say.”</p><p>The more he watched her, her playful smirks and stunning gaze (even when it was locked behind sunglasses), the more quickly Eddie came to the realisation of how easily a better version of him could end up falling for her. Even if he didn’t understand how <em> she </em>would ever fall for him, no matter what version he was.</p><p>But, speaking of stealing…</p><p>He found Jamie kneeling in front of the vending machine just out of sight of the reception windows. She had one arm stuck through the lid of the tray where snacks would fall into, and she stuck her tongue out in concentration as she watched a lime-black tendril snake up behind the glass of the machine and all the forbidden treats it displayed.</p><p>“You know you have to pay for things like that.” Eddie towered over her, but she didn’t even register his reflection in the machine’s window.</p><p>“Only if you don’t have a symbiote,” she told him, just before an exhale of victory announced her retrieval of an entire row of Skittles’ packets that came crashing down on her arm. Sleeper helped her scoop out their ill-gotten goods from the tray before going right back up into the machine to get more.  </p><p>“Stealing is <em> wrong </em> , Jamie.” Eddie wasn’t much surprised to see that her morals were a little grey (she <em> had </em> been raised by a thief, after all… and Sleeper only helping her steal was a big improvement on how his <em> other </em> sibling had turned out), but even if she wasn’t his daughter he still felt like he had to teach her at least one good thing before she was sent home. </p><p>“That’s not what my Dad said when he showed me how to do this,” Jamie said,  the implications of which made Eddie’s blood sugar spike so hard that Symby almost got drunk off the sudden glucose.  </p><p>“I… he… well, then he’s a bad influence,” he stuttered, even though he knew it was bullshit cause if it was true then Jamie would probably be a <em> lot </em> worse. And, well, there wasn’t anyone in any universe who could possibly be a worse influence than <em> he </em> was. </p><p><b> <em>“I beg to differ,” </em> </b>Symby scoffed in his skull, but Eddie didn’t argue back. He was too distracted with looking at Jamie, and the half of his reflection superimposed over hers in the vending machine glass.  </p><p>
  <em> ‘You were raised by a notorious thief, and your dad chose to sleep with one. So who’s the real bad guy here?’ </em>
</p><p>Then again. </p><p>Could Eddie really blame his counterpart for choosing Felicia?</p><p>If she’d ever been a realistic option for himself…</p><p>But she never would be. So he shouldn’t be thinking of things like that.</p><p>“Just don’t eat too much,” he told Jamie, who was still kneeling in front of the vending machine. “You’ll get sick.”</p><p>“Uh huh.” She clearly wasn’t listening to him anymore, so he decided to just go lock himself in his room until it was time to leave. </p><p>Just him and Symby, alone with their thoughts. Alone for the first time since Jamie showed up. He’d spent years by himself, then months with just Symby, so in the past three days he’d had more social interaction than he’d had in the last decade.</p><p>And with <em> Felicia Hardy </em>, of all people. Even now, with the shock mostly worn off, he still couldn’t really believe any of it. He would have thought he was in the middle of the weirdest and longest drug trip on the planet if it wasn’t for Symby insisting his blood was all clear (though a little hotter and saltier than usual). </p><p>The real shocking thing was that Felicia still wanted anything to do with him and Jamie. If anything, his confession seemed to make her want to stay even closer to the kid now. He supposed that, if Jamie had someone like him as her dad, that warranted some extra attention and precautions.</p><p>Or maybe Felicia had actually listened to him, when they were standing apart on the rooftop last night. It didn’t matter who Jamie’s parents were, because her parents weren’t really the two of them. They were just what was most familiar to her, and they just had to get her home. </p><p>And after that... well, they’d burn that bridge when they’d get to it. </p><p>Or maybe they wouldn’t.</p><p>But they’d have to. </p><p>Even if he didn’t want to.</p><p>They’d have to.  </p><p>...He had Symby, anyway. He didn’t need anyone else. He didn’t <em> want </em>anyone else. The only person who could have made him think otherwise was long since dead. If Felicia ever came close to taking her place… she’d probably just end up dead too. </p><p>And it’d probably be his fault again.</p><p>And that was never going to happen anyway. So why did that scare him so much?</p><p><b> <em>“Eddie?”</em> </b> Symby made his fingers twitch to pull his brain back out of the malicious void, and he didn’t realise he was holding the door handle to his room until the metal under Venom’s hard started to warp from his grip. </p><p><em> ‘I’m fine, Symby. Really. This is just… a bad place to be.’ </em>A bad place to raise a child, and to bring one into.</p><p>He thought about what kind of father he could be, one that Jamie wasn’t scared of, in another place. The kind of father that she <em> liked </em>being around. He thought of how unfamiliar that concept was to him.</p><p>He fucking hated this place, what it did to him. San Francisco. Planet Earth. This world where he wasn’t allowed to have the kind of family that only existed in another that he’d never see. </p><p>Maybe this was his divine punishment. </p><p>It was long overdue, after all.</p><p>...And then, as he let go of the handle, he heard his stomach groan. He hadn’t eaten since that morning. No wonder he was getting so easily worked up over ancient bullshit. </p><p>“Jamie.” He turned back to the kid, who had managed to clear out half of the vending machine by now. “Could you... grab us a Kit-Kat while you’re in there?”</p><p>Jamie briefly glanced over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the machine’s dwindling stocks. “What kind?”</p><p>
  <b> <em>“There’s more than one kind…?”</em> </b>
</p><p>“There’s more than one...?” Eddie echoed his symbiote’s awe as he crouched next to Jamie, who was looking up at the rows of chocolate wafers near the top of the machine.</p><p>“There’s regular,” she pointed them out, “white chocolate, dark, caramel, mint, raspberry cream-”</p><p>“What the hell? Since when?!” Eddie had clearly been missing out on vital new developments in the world of sugar- if he’d known there were so many options, he might have had an easier time keeping Symby sated before Alchemax found their cure.</p><p>“You should see the ones they have in Japan,” Jamie mentioned while expertly fishing out some regular flavor packets. </p><p>“Forget Japan,” Eddie said, almost pressing his face right against the machine’s glass, “get me some of those raspberry ones up there.”</p><p>
  <b> <em>“And the dark chocolate! We can mix and match them!”</em> </b>
</p><p>“The mint ones are nice too,” Jamie suggested, directing Sleeper’s tendril so that he grabbed one of each.</p><p>“You two having fun together?”</p><p>Felicia’s voice made them all freeze, with Sleeper almost trying to hide himself behind a candy bar. Eddie slowly swivelled his head to see her standing behind him with her hands on her hips, where she was holding a bundle of various leaflets she’d probably swiped from the nearby reception. They’d been caught chocolate-handed.</p><p>“...It’s not what it looks like,” he said, while Jamie winced as a <em> thud </em> of fresh falling candy betrayed them both. <br/>“It looks like you’re stealing from the vending machine,” Felicia noted, as if she had any right to make them feel guilty over such petty theft.</p><p>“So... it’s exactly what it looks like,” Eddie admitted.</p><p>“You want some, Felicia?” Jamie held out a Snickers bar like a peace offering, and after a moment’s appraisal Felicia took it with a roll of her eyes.</p><p>“We’ve got a few hours to kill, Jamie,” she said as she pocketed the candy. “How about we take your stash to the room and see if there’s a good movie on?”</p><p>“Okay.” Jamie started gathering her pilfered treats up in her arms, using the hem of her shirt to carry them like it was a pocket as she shuffled across the parking lot. Eddie quickly snatched up any treats that fell out for himself. </p><p>“This place has movies?” he asked, because he was just grateful for a place that had clean sheets and a shower in the bathroom.</p><p>“Yeah, but most you have to pay for.” Felicia passed one of her many leaflets to him as Jamie carefully carried her bounty towards their room. “So good luck finding something free that doesn’t suck.”</p><p>Which was about as much as could be expected, for whatever Parker’s budget was. Eddie scanned the printed selection half-heartedly, wondering if he could just have a nap that didn’t dip too deep into bad dreams for once to pass the time-</p><p>And then he saw it. </p><p>“Oh <em> shit </em>!”</p><p>“Eddie!” Felicia hissed, even though Jamie surely couldn’t hear him from halfway across the parking lot. “Language!”</p><p>“But…” He held up the pamphlet like it was something holy and precious, pointing to the one line that had just saved his evening from self-loathing and turmoil. “RoboCop! I <em> fucking </em> love RoboCop!”</p><p>“My dad fucking loves RoboCop too!” Jamie called out, clearly <em> not </em>too far away to have heard him after all.</p><p>“<em> Jamie! </em>” Both Felicia and Eddie shouted after her at the same time, making each other jump from the sound of their own voices. The kid looked across at them from just outside the door to her room. </p><p>“What?” She was apparently confused by their jarred reactions. “He <em> does </em>.”</p><p>“Does he let you say words like that as well?” Felicia asked, crossing her arms over her chest as an unamused portrait of good parenthood.</p><p>“Sometimes Mom does if I ask nicely.” Jamie probably hadn’t meant to make it sound like a jab at her not-Mother (just like how she hadn’t meant her confession about her Dad teaching her to steal to be a jab at Eddie). But Felicia still looked like she’d just been out-sassed for the first time in her life. </p><p>“Well... don’t do it again.” She shook her head as Jamie retreated through the door of their room. “What the hell are they teaching kids where she’s from…?”</p><p>“How to rob vending machines and eat their whole body weight in one sitting, apparently,” Eddie muttered, which elicited a meagre smile from Felicia.</p><p>“Wonder which one of us taught her that last one. How heavy are brains supposed to be?” She was walking away as he spluttered. </p><p>“I-! I told you before, I do <em> not </em> eat brains! I just let people think I do cause it scares them away!” He was practically shouting across the length of the asphalt and outing himself as a potential cannibal to everyone in a one mile radius (as if they weren’t already expecting to be murdered in a place like this), but he <em> had </em> to let Felicia know that he and Symby did <em> not </em>actually eat brains, Goddammit! Not anymore, at least!</p><p>“Bit of an extreme method to just be left alone, isn’t it?” She was standing in the open doorway to her room, leaning out so she kept Eddie in her sights, and he had the distinct feeling that he was being appraised. Like how she’d look at a jewel on a museum stand, or a strand of pearls locked in a safe. Trying to decide if its value was worth the effort of taking for herself.</p><p>She’d been doing that for the past two days, hadn’t she? Trying to decide if he’d snap and try to kill her again, probably. </p><p>“Well… whatever works.” Eddie had liked being alone, until now. Now that he remembered what being around people was actually supposed to be like. Now that he was faced with the unbelievable and horrifying prospect that not <em> everyone </em>on Earth really hated his guts. </p><p>Felicia kept staring him down. She’d removed her sunglasses, so there was nothing to protect him from her gaze. </p><p>It looked like she was pitying him. It felt worse than being hated.</p><p>“Enjoy your movie, Eddie.” She ducked inside and closed the door.</p><p>“Yeah, well… enjoy your type 2 diabetes!” he called after her, even though she probably couldn’t hear him anymore.</p><p><b> <em>“I... don’t think she was making fun of you that time, Eddie,” </em> </b>Symby gently told him. </p><p>“You’re right. She wasn’t. Fuck, we’re really bad at this, aren’t we…” He wasn’t sure what ‘it’ was in his mind- talking to people, convincing them that he wasn’t as bad as they thought he was, something like that. He wanted to sink down to the ground behind the looted vending machine with his back against the wall, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to pick himself back up. He wanted to be with Jamie, and Felicia, to pretend that he was normal for just a few more hours. He wanted to go home.</p><p>Worst of all, the Kit-Kats were starting to melt. Symby had snaked a tendril from the bottom of his pants to lap up the chocolate from one of the split-open packets on the asphalt, and Eddie stooped down to try and gather them up when a sudden voice from behind almost made him jump out of his symbiote. </p><p>“Don’t let Felicia rile you up too much, Brock.” Wherever Peter had been this whole time, he must have seen some of Eddie and Felicia’s back-and-forth across the parking lot. “She’s the kind of person you need to build up a resistance to.”</p><p>He spoke from experience, of course, which only made Eddie despise him even more in that moment.  </p><p>“I don’t need advice from <em> you </em>, Parker, alright?” He shot a glare over his shoulder at the spider, but otherwise just tried to ignore him.</p><p>“Well, you need advice from <em> someone </em>, clearly,” Peter muttered, just quietly enough that Eddie wasn’t completely overwhelmed by the urge to snap his neck. “Anyway. I’m gonna go get something to eat that’s not expired machine candy, so try and not wreck the place while I’m gone.”</p><p>“Whatever.” Eddie watched him walk away with a steady glare, gathering his salvaged candy to his chest.</p><p><b> <em>“We’ll need to tell him about Sleeper,” </em> </b>Symby reminded him as he shuffled to their room. </p><p>“I know.” He knew it, and he hated it. Felicia finding out was one thing (she kind of had a right to know, at least), but the last thing he needed was fucking <em> Parker </em>freaking out over another symbiote host cause he was so convinced they were all evil no matter.</p><p>(Even if Eddie only had himself to blame for how that turned out…) </p><p>
  <b> <em>“It might help him figure out how to get Jamie home.”</em> </b>
</p><p>“Or it might make him think she’s a monster like us,” Eddie mumbled, not wanting to fully admit it in case he made it true. </p><p>
  <b> <em>“We still need to tell him.”</em> </b>
</p><p>Parker was the one who was going to fix everything, after all. He had to <em> know </em>everything to do it right, in case Sleeper could be hurt during the journey back to his and Jamie’s universe. Imagine if Jamie got home and found her brother was injured… or worse? All because Parker hadn’t accounted for a symbiote inside her, because Eddie had been too much of a coward to tell him. </p><p>He already had enough things he’d never forgive himself for. </p><p>“When he gets back,” Eddie promised, pressing down on the warped metal of the door handle. “We’ll wait until then, alright?”</p><p>Or at least until RoboCop was finished. He was allowed <em>that</em> small luxury, surely.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A quick note before you go on: if you have my work skin enabled, you will see a piece of dialogue near the end that uses a custom font (just to be extra). To see it as it’s intended, you’ll need to download and install the font ‘October Crow' (I found it from dafont.com). If you don’t have this font installed you’ll still be able to read the dialogue, it just won’t have that extra bit of style to it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Despite all of Horizon University’s impressive innovations, world-class laboratories, three-story research libraries and having the world’s only Small Hadron Collider on campus, Felicia was still able to get them all inside with nothing more than a ten-dollar lockpicking kit she’d found at a hardware store and some broken wires leading into security cameras. It helped that Parker knew the interior layout well enough that it was obvious where it was and wasn’t safe to go. </p><p>Front door- definitely not. Back door- just as bad. The roofs were alarmed, but Parker knew of one spot he could use as a lookout while Felicia opened up a second-storey window they could slip into. Eddie’s job as Venom was to carry Jamie up and hoist her through. </p><p>It was eleven PM, and they were finally inside, and they hadn’t been seen.</p><p>And Eddie <em> still </em> hadn’t told Parker about the kid’s symbiote.</p><p>Well, he couldn’t do it <em> now </em> with the resident nerd so absorbed in trying to fix whatever it was that would take Jamie home. He’d wait until the equipment was ready, until it was all calibrated or measured or assimilated or <em> whatever </em>. </p><p>The sooner it was ready, the sooner she could go home. The sooner he could go home. The sooner he could start letting go of all this. </p><p>“Okay… this all looks familiar, at least.” Parker held his chin as he looked around the wall of machines and panels. The searing-light of the incandescent bulbs overhead almost completely obliterated the meager blinking of LEDs in front of him. </p><p>“That’s the power button, frequency dials, temperature gauge- wait, that’s new… what the hell, they just hold down the safety switch with a rubber band!?” He unwrapped the band from the bright red switch, and ended up snapping himself on his nose with it as it pinged loose.</p><p>“Ow! Son of a…” Parker hissed as he kicked the instruments, while Felicia leaned across the wall to make sure no one was coming up the outside corridor (Eddie was surprised she wasn’t slinking around the empty rooms, looking for anything she could shove into her pockets and onto the black market. Then again, universities weren’t her usual kind of targets).</p><p>“So what exactly are you gonna try and do here?” She kept fidgeting her hands, as if she wasn’t used to not wearing gloves when she was on a job. She hadn’t wanted to turn on the lights, but Parker had insisted that he couldn’t work in the dark.</p><p>“The web watch needs to be powered before we can even see if it’s working.” His voice sounded like a nasal-drone as he rubbed at his nose. “And the only way we can do that is with supercharged ionising particles.”</p><p>“Which means…?” Felicia turned away from her sentry duties just to throw a long-suffering glare at him. </p><p>“Radiation. Lots of it. Turns out it’s useful for more than just making spider people.”</p><p>“You call making more of you ‘useful’?”</p><p>“First of all, <em> rude </em> . Second of all… most versions of me have been jackasses, so you kind of have a point. But still. <em> Rude </em>.”</p><p>Eddie rolled his eyes while he stayed out of the way at the back of the lab. <em> ‘Yeah, try </em> all <em> versions. Jackass.’ </em></p><p>Didn’t matter that he was the only one who could help, or the only one <em> willing </em> to help, He was still an asshole. Even the one that Jamie knew was probably an asshole. He had to be. It was impossible for him <em> not </em>to be, surely. </p><p>But Symby made no comment about that. She’d been silent for most of the evening, in fact. Eddie was just grateful that she wasn’t scolding him for not telling Parker the very important thing that was probably going to ruin everything.</p><p>After all. It was going so well, so far. It <em> had </em>to go wrong at some point, so he was just delaying the inevitable.  </p><p>“So, what,” Felicia was asking as she peered through the heavy door set in between all the machines, “we need to stand behind a wall of lead when this thing is on?”</p><p>“The chamber itself is completely shielded,” Parker said as he hauled the door open to place the watch inside. “We just need to, y’know, not open the door under any circumstances for the next ten minutes. After that, I’ll run some power tests on the watch and make sure it’s working like it should be.”</p><p>Felicia started inching herself away from the chamber as Parker sealed it shut. “Think I’ll go hide out a few doors down anyway, just to be safe.”</p><p>“You’re gonna rake through the classrooms for things to steal, aren’t you, Felicia?” Parker was messing around with a set of controls when he asked, and she was already halfway out the door.</p><p>“Well, since you’ve suggested it…”</p><p>Eddie almost thought about joining her, just so he wouldn’t be left alone with the spider. But then he’d be left alone with Felicia. And, considering everything, he felt like that’d turn out a lot worse. </p><p>Of course, he was never truly alone with a symbiote. But Symby wasn’t up for offering any solutions this fine and fucked-up evening. So Eddie’s eyes quickly sought out Jamie, only to see she’d apparently disappeared from the lab at some point. </p><p>“Where’s the kid?” He spoke to Felicia just before the door to the hallway closed behind her.</p><p>“On the balcony.” She nodded towards a glass door set in the farthest wall. “I gave her my phone to keep her occupied.”</p><p>Cause she was likely freaking out over finally getting back to her real parents soon... or still worrying about a nightmare man in black-and-red coming to kidnap her. </p><p>“Guess I’ll go… keep an eye on her, then.” Eddie excused himself to no one in particular as he let himself out. Now that Symby wasn’t shielding his skin, he could feel the heat of the night air weighing heavy on his pores. San Francisco always clung tightly to him; he was never sure if it ever let him go. The skyscraper lights in the distance seemed to wink at him.</p><p>Just as Felicia had said, Jamie was sitting on the floor outside with her back against the wall and her face buried in the bright light of a phone screen. You couldn’t see her unless you stepped out onto the balcony itself. Despite how warm the evening was, she had the cat-eared hood of a jacket pulled over her head.</p><p>“Jamie. You alright?”</p><p>She briefly looked up, pulling an earphone out from one of her ears as she nodded. “Felicia ate half my snacks.”</p><p>“Really? Guess we know now how your one ended up getting fat.”</p><p>“Mommy’s not <em> fat </em>. Just bigger. And she wouldn’t let me see what RoboCop was.”</p><p>“You’ll see it when you’re older.” Eddie lowered himself so he was sitting next to her against the same wall. If it wasn’t for Symby regulating his body, he’d be sweating a lot more than he already was. He wondered if Sleeper was helping Jamie stay calm too. </p><p>“She got anything good on there?” Eddie leaned over to get a glance at Felicia’s phone clutched in Jamie’s hands. It looked big, and expensive, and very very breakable. But of course Felicia could replace it if she had to.</p><p>“There’s Angry Birds,” Jamie said, “and Neko Atsume. But I like listening to her music.”</p><p>That explained why she still had one earbud plugged in. Eddie was tempted to pick up the trailing bud and see what Felicia usually listened to, even though they were unlikely to have any overlapping taste.</p><p>“I’m guessing she’s probably not into Rolling Stones,” he said, while Jamie cocked her head to one side.</p><p>“What’s that?”</p><p>Eddie looked at her like she’d just asked who Captain America was.</p><p>“Your parents <em> never </em> showed you the Stones?”</p><p>She shook her head, and her cat ears went flopping side-to-side.</p><p>“Led Zepplin? Pink Floyd!?” He was despairing more and more by the second- this was his <em> daughter </em>and she didn’t know about the bastions of rock?!</p><p>“I like pink,” she said. “It’s a nice color.”</p><p>Eddie could only shake his head in defeat. “Kids these days…” If he’d known her musical education was so horrendously lacking, he’d have spent the last two days fixing that error instead of freaking out so much over her mother.</p><p>(He’d have still freaked out, of course, but at least he would’ve had <em> some </em> meagre distraction.) </p><p>“You wanna see what she has?” Jamie offered the phone to Eddie, a glowing square that was worth more than what he could earn legitimately in two months. Its ridiculous value wasn’t what stopped him from taking it, though. There was likely a lot more about Felicia he could learn from her phone than just her music interests, and it felt… wrong to look through it without her permission. </p><p>So he could murder people without a care in the world, but he drew the line at invading someone’s privacy. Probably cause he’d be more pissed at someone for going through his stuff than for trying to kill him. </p><p><b> <em>“If there was anything she wanted to hide on there,” </em> </b> Symby rumbled, finally coming to the aid of his broken moral compass, <b> <em> “she wouldn’t have let Jamie borrow it. Just don’t look at anything else.”</em> </b></p><p>That was good enough, right? It wasn’t like a person’s playlists held all their deepest darkest secrets. And, fuck it, his curiosity was hardly his worst flaw. He carefully took the phone from Jamie and scrolled down with his thumb. </p><p>‘<em> Huh, didn’t think she’d be into ABBA... wait, wait a minute-’ </em></p><p>“Metallica?!” He couldn’t help himself, he had to stop and stare- Nirvana, Pixies, Sabbath... he wasn’t so much surprised that Felicia had <em> some </em>good taste, more like he was surprised that they had anything in common with each other.</p><p>(Other than them both having a kid and not liking spider people, of course.) </p><p>“Mom usually gets mad if I put songs like that up too loud.” Jamie pouted like she’d just realised her Mom was a bit of a hypocrite. Eddie handed the phone back to her while understanding even <em> less </em>about Felicia than he thought he’d known five minutes ago. </p><p>It wasn’t any grand epiphany or dawning of stark realisation. She was just a human who liked certain kinds of music. Like him. And it blew his mind, almost as much as Jamie herself had.</p><p>Was it just a tiny part of the puzzle? That ridiculous and impossible puzzle, of why she would ever <em> marry </em> someone like him?</p><p><b> <em>“Why don’t you ask her?” </em> </b>Symby nudged the base of his brain’s aching cortex, a gurgle in the warm night. He almost thought she was mocking him, cause it wasn’t like he could find that very specific Felicia and ask her what she possibly saw in him-</p><p><b> <em>“No, not Felicia.” </em> </b>Symby sounded weary with her correction, but Eddie understood now.</p><p>“Jamie?”</p><p>“Mm?” Through the thud of the earbuds and the tilt of her head he could tell she was fully immersed in <em> Hey </em>by Pixies (even though she was definitely too young to be knowing what a whore is).</p><p>“How... did your parents meet?”</p><p>Jamie pressed her lips together, still leaning side-to-side in a lazy wave of her spine. “I think... they said they helped each other take down some bad guys. It was Green Goblin, and Uncle Cletus… and another guy who wore a hood. Central Park got burned down cause of them.” She added on that last part as if it was a point of pride.</p><p>“That’s… all it was?” Eddie didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been something that could just be explained so easily in a few sentences. “They teamed up and… somehow fell in love?” </p><p>If only it was really that easy. The ‘somehow’ was the part that was driving him crazy, and it was the one part that a nine-year-old wouldn’t be able to tell him about.</p><p>It wasn’t like he hadn’t worked with Felicia before. But, both times, at the end of everything, they <em> definitely </em> hadn’t liked each other any more than usual. </p><p>So what was the missing piece?</p><p>And, Goddammit, why did it matter to him so much that he knew what it was?</p><p>“Goo Mom told me once that they always needed each other,” Jamie said, as if she was reading his mind (or maybe Sleeper was doing it for her). “They just didn’t realise it until then.”</p><p><b> <em>“That does sound like something I would say.” </em> </b>Symby’s own assurance still didn’t answer any of Eddie’s questions.</p><p>“Really…” If he didn’t know any better, he’d have thought that Symby herself was the missing piece. But that would have been just too easy even if it made sense.</p><p>(But what <em> did </em>make sense anymore, knowing that Jamie existed somewhere far away?) </p><p>“D’you like Felicia, Eddie?” Jamie hugged her knees close to her chest, as if she hadn’t just slapped Eddie right across his brain with those few innocent words. But Symby didn’t recoil like he did.</p><p>“I know she definitely doesn’t like us...”</p><p>“That’s not what I asked.” Either Sleeper, her brother with likely thousands of years of inherited alien wisdom, was feeding her questions, or this kid was really an old lady wrapped up in a cat hoodie.</p><p>“Well,” Eddie sighed as he let his pounding head slip and thud against the wall at his back. “I don’t know how to answer what you asked.”</p><p>“You don’t know if you like someone or not?”</p><p>“When you’re an adult, Jamie, it’s not as simple as whether or not you <em> like </em>someone.” Just like how it wasn’t as simple as teaming up and then, forgetting all that’s happened before, falling in love.  </p><p>“Well, if I like being around someone, then I figure that I like them,” Jamie said, trying to be helpful while also making him sound like an idiot. “Sounds pretty simple to me.”</p><p>So then the crux of the question was changed. Yet he <em> still </em>didn’t know how to answer.</p><p>How do you go about liking someone who you tried to kill years ago? As in, how do you do it <em> properly </em>?</p><p>Felicia was just about everything that he wasn’t. Usually he hated people like that, the living reminders of everything that was wrong with him. But she was an easy person to like… maybe even easier to love. But that only made him want to rebel against that damning urge even more.</p><p>He heard words and music still coming from the phone, the loose earbud taunting him with a looping chorus that told him, in just two words, everything he didn’t want to admit.</p><p>
  <em> “We’re chained, we’re chained, we’re chained…” </em>
</p><p>Symby had said he and Felicia needed each other? Maybe in another kind of life. Eddie could believe that he always needed someone like her, at least. But the reverse couldn’t possibly be true, not in this or <em> any </em>universe.</p><p><b> <em>“You know what the answer is, love,”</em> </b> Symby told him. <b> <em> “You just don’t want to admit it.”</em> </b></p><p><em> ‘I thought you were supposed to be on </em> my <em> side,’ </em>his brain scoffed. </p><p>
  <b> <em>“I am. Always.”</em> </b>
</p><p>She wasn’t letting him take the easy way out, then. Jamie was still waiting for his response.</p><p>“I like... being around Felicia,” he finally confessed- and it really did feel like he was in a confessional booth, for the first time in so many years. Funnily enough, his last time inside one had been in San Francisco too. </p><p>“So you must like her,” Jamie decreed with a gap-tooth smile.</p><p>So he must. </p><p>Maybe it <em> was </em>that simple.</p><p>Symby purred inside his heart.</p><p>“You gonna be a therapist when you’re older or something?” he asked Jamie.</p><p>“I’m gonna be a wrestler,” she declared, “and then a superhero. Just like Uncle Pete.”</p><p>“Sure you are.” </p><p>Venom wasn’t a hero (and neither was Black Cat), sure, but if he could <em> make </em>a hero then maybe that was good enough. If Jamie could stop stealing from vending machines, she’d probably be a pretty good one too.</p><p>“Sleeper has an idea.”</p><p>“Hm?” Eddie pulled his head away from the wall, finding Jamie kneeling beside him.</p><p>“First you need to hold out your hand.”</p><p>“Okay...” He did as he was told, and his palm could have engulfed both of Jamie’s hands easily. <span>Her fingers grasped his hand as much as they could; he felt soft fabric, and then saw that the cuffs of her sleeves had a hole for her thumb and lime-green paw pads on them. That was what he noticed first, instead of the black tar that leaked from her fingers and circled around his wrist.</span></p><p>“What’re you-?”</p><p>“Shh.” She held up her finger in front of her mouth. “He needs to concentrate.”</p><p>Sleeper climbed up his arm with a tendril that felt like nothing against his skin even though he could clearly see that there was something touching him. Then another tendril appeared, this one coming down from his neck to meet Sleeper’s. Symby tentatively circled him, nudged him, and then her voice bloomed in Eddie’s brain. </p><p>
  <b> <em>“Oh… I see.”</em> </b>
</p><p>“What is he doing?” he asked both Symby and Jamie, but neither of them answered. Jamie squeezed her eyes shut with much visible effort, her tongue sticking out slightly, as Symby and Sleeper merged together.</p><p>“Can you see anything?” she asked, as Eddie’s vision started to split into fragments. It was like a Rorschach was suddenly painted over his eyes.  </p><p>But he could see… <em> something </em>. The image was faint, viewed from a great distance through a shattered window, until it cleared all at once and revealed where he’d been taken. </p><p>He was sitting on a couch in a cluttered living room. There was a heavy arm wrapped around his shoulders, while another held up a newspaper in front of him. He heard his own voice, but it wasn’t from his mouth.</p><p>“See, sweetie, this headline is designed to catch your attention. Each word is an exaggeration-”</p><p>“What’s that?” Jamie’s voice came out just as she turned her head- Eddie wasn’t sitting on the couch, <em> she </em>was, he was just seeing through her eyes. And he saw himself- was that really him? The other Eddie had some facial hair that made his own chin itch, and he definitely looked older than he should have been. But it was the smile under the long stubble that made him almost unrecognisable.</p><p>“It’s when you make something sound better or worse than it really is,” he told Jamie, who was held close in the crook of his arm. </p><p>“So... it’s like lying,” Jamie said.</p><p>“It’s a <em> nicer </em>way of lying.”</p><p>Then, behind the other Eddie, someone appeared from a doorway with white hair pulled into a messy ponytail- holy shit, that was Felicia. She was fucking gorgeous! But she looked the same as she always did, she didn’t even look that much bigger! What the fuck!?</p><p>“Eddie,” she warned as she passed by with a bundle of laundry in her arms, “stop trying to turn Jamie into a journalist.”</p><p>“I was doing no such thing! I was just teaching her how <em> not </em>to be one.” </p><p>Felicia threw a skeptical look over her shoulder that made the real Eddie’s lungs go completely empty.</p><p>“What’s wrong with being a journalist?” Jamie asked, making Eddie curse when she turned her head away from Felicia towards her dad (he figured pretty quickly this must have been her parents, the Eddie and Felicia who had raised her).</p><p>“Well, for one thing,” her father leaned close in to tell her, “we’re not allowed to hit people with chairs on the job.”</p><p>“Boo! I don’t wanna be a journalist!” Jamie jumped off of the couch and pelted towards the kitchen, which was through the doorway stunning Felicia had emerged from. </p><p>“Mission accomplished, then!” her father called out in the background, as Jamie leaned over a cabinet to pull down a tin of cookies with Sleeper’s help. There was nothing in this apartment that Eddie recognised, but there was definitely an oven in the kitchen. It was more than he could ever have wanted.</p><p>“Eddie.” Felicia’s delightful voice seeped through the walls. “Did you say Jamie could have a treat before dinner?”</p><p>“Just the one. She threatened to grow up into a supervillain if I didn’t.”</p><p>“You spoil her, you know.”</p><p>“Can’t help it when she looks so much like you.”</p><p>“Oh, you...”</p><p>Jamie retrieved a single cookie, as she’d promised her father, and when she turned back to the living room she came across a scene that would have made Eddie’s heart stop if not for Symby coiled so tightly around it.</p><p>They were kissing.</p><p>Eddie, him still on the couch, and Felicia, her pulled into his lap, were kissing each other. </p><p>He only saw a second of it as Jamie whirled away.</p><p>“Ewww, don’t do that in front of me!” And her parents laughed together, more proof than anything else, even the kiss, that they loved each other.</p><p>And it hurt.</p><p>Oh dear <em> God, </em>it hurt.</p><p><b><span class="Sleeper">“<em>Was that bad?”</em></span></b> An unfamiliar voice panicked in his sternum, young and male. It might have been Sleeper.<b><span class="Sleeper"><em> “Sorry, sorry, I’ll find something else…”</em></span></b></p><p>The scene was cast aside, leaving Eddie floundering in his own loneliness for aching seconds. </p><p>He’d known they were married. He’d known they loved each other. But nothing could have prepared him for <em> seeing </em>it, being reminded of…</p><p>The wife he’d lost. The one he’d never deserved to have in the first place. </p><p>Did Jamie, or her Felicia, know about Annie?</p><p>Did she even <em> exist </em> over there, in that place that was surely too good to be true?</p><p>Even though Sleeper’s voice was in his head now, Eddie never received an answer from him. Instead the symbiote found another memory to show him, to distract him with. </p><p>This time he was in a bedroom- the walls plastered with pink and cream wallpaper, shelves showing off action figures and dolls, star stickers glowing faintly on the ceiling in the low light. The lamp on the bedside table was shaped like a star too. Jamie was facing it as she tucked herself into bed, pulling the cartoon-cat-covered sheets tight around as she arranged various plush animals into their positions for the night.</p><p>“Now, you got all your friends in with you?” Felicia appeared, beautiful even in pyjamas, as she sat down on the edge of Jamie’s bed. Eddie knew the kid was nodding from how her vision moved up and down.</p><p>“You sure there’s no one hiding under the bed?” Felicia pushed. Now Jamie shook her head.</p><p>“Really? Then who’s this?” Felicia reached behind her back and, with tiny movements, made a stuffed unicorn trot up over the bedcovers.</p><p>“Marshmallow!” Jamie reached a hand out from her cocoon to grab the unicorn. Felicia grinned as she tucked the kid back in and reached over to switch the lamp off.</p><p>“Sleep well, baby.”</p><p>“Mommy?” Jamie stopped Felicia just as her hand was on the lamp.</p><p>“Yes, sweetie?”</p><p>“Was there… anything else under the bed?”</p><p>Felicia knelt down to check.</p><p>“Can’t see a thing,” she said from the floor.</p><p>“There’s <em> definitely </em>no monsters? Or mutants? Or-”</p><p>“Definitely <em> not </em>.” Felicia’s loose hair spilled over one shoulder as she re-emerged, and she found the lump of Jamie’s hand under the covers to pat it. “Remember, Daddy scared them all away. And if they ever dare come back-”</p><p>“He’ll chomp all their heads off!” Jamie giggled, just as her father’s head appeared leaning around her bedroom door.</p><p>“Only if they deserve it!” he insisted, which made Felicia roll her glorious green eyes. Eddie had never noticed they were green before. </p><p>“Good night, Jamie. And you too, Sleeper.” Felicia kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “I love you.”</p><p>“Love you too, Mommy.” Jamie burrowed into her bed as Felicia stood up, and her father was still peeking out of the door.</p><p>“Hey, where’s my kiss goodnight?” he demanded.</p><p>“Oh, how <em> rude </em> of me to forget.” Felicia reached the door and pulled his face closer-</p><p>It was going to happen again. But this time, thankfully, Jamie pressed her face into her pillow.</p><p>“Groooss! Stop it!”</p><p>“Okay, okay, it’s safe to look.” Her father was laughing, though it sounded nothing like Eddie’s own tired barks or the half-mad chuckles when he had to laugh to stop himself from crying. Jamie pulled her face back from her pillow, and she saw the scruff on her dad’s chin as he leaned down to press his lips to her crown.</p><p>“Sweet dreams, baby,” he whispered. “I love you both.”</p><p>“Love you too, Dad.”</p><p>After everything Eddie had seen, everything he’d gone through, that was the breaking point.</p><p>Those four words that he’d never heard, certainly never spoken before.</p><p>He used to tell his own dad that he’d loved him, because he felt like he had to. Even though he never said the same back. Even though he never even acknowledged that he heard it. </p><p>Where was he now, in this cursed fucking city? Was he even still alive?</p><p>Eddie didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know what it was like to be a father, a husband for longer than a year, a hero, a good man.</p><p>Everything that he wasn’t. Everything that this universe had decreed he could never be.</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Eddie, darling, just breathe…”</em> </b>
</p><p>“Eddie? Are you okay?”</p><p>Jamie’s voice was a distant echo that cracked around his skull, and Symby’s was a blaring siren in his bloodstream. Eddie felt his lungs inflate, his ribs almost snapping, his eyes bursting from their sockets-</p><p>And when he inhaled, sucking down the humid California air, he found himself lying on the same balcony. He’d crossed the multiverse without moving an inch. His head felt like it had been split down its atoms. Through the throbbing pain, he remembered that Jamie had asked him something. She’d asked him a lot of things that evening.</p><p>“I... don’t think I am.” </p><p>He was never okay, after all. And who did he have to blame for that?</p><p>Jamie was still kneeling, but she buried her hands deep in her pockets. “I figured you wanted to see what my Mom was like. I didn’t mean for it to go bad like that… I’m sorry…” She pulled her hood around her face so it was completely hidden, like she wanted to hide from her mistake.</p><p>“No, don’t… don’t be sorry.” Eddie pulled himself up, trying to remember where all his bones were supposed to be in his arm and chest. “It’s okay. Just wasn’t expecting…” </p><p>That? What could he even call <em> that </em>? Wishful thinking was the only thing that came to mind, the only thing that wasn’t pure melancholy.</p><p>(But wasn’t wishful thinking the very definition of melancholy?)</p><p>He gulped, and his lungs were instantly full of midnight rainforest heat. He preferred when they were empty and he was just allowed to suffocate. “Maybe we should head back inside...”</p><p>You knew things were going bad when being near <em> Peter Parker </em> was considered an improvement. But crazier things had happened. Crazier things were holding onto his hand, either making sure he was okay or making sure the girl and her symbiote grasping his fingers remained close to him.</p><p>Seeing her own memories must have made her homesick. It was better for everyone that she was taken far away from here, as soon as possible. Parker looked hard at work, at least, handling the precious watch with thick gloves and thicker goggles as he maneuvered a pair of tweezers within its open mechanisms. But then he raised his head, just as the hallway door inched open.</p><p>“Peter!” Felicia suddenly dashed through the door and silently closed it behind her, swatting at the light switch as she hissed. “Someone’s coming!”</p><p>Everyone instantly glued themselves to the wall in the darkness; Eddie was about to pour a symbiote shield around Jamie, but Sleeper beat him to it as he flowed over her like a pure black cloak. Like Venom, you couldn’t see her at all in the dark. Eddie only knew of her presence because he still felt her hand in his.</p><p>Felicia and Parker flanked the door itself, each of them taking up one side in trained ambush positions. But then Parker faltered, as a sound started coming closer up the hallway. </p><p>“...I recognise that whistle. Stay here. I’ll handle this.” The idiot flipped the light switch back on and, still wearing his gloves and goggles, headed out into the corridor. Felicia looked like she’d just been caught in the headlights of a truck, and she crouched down with a grimace as she tried to scurry back into a corner of the room. Symby, meanwhile, quickly surged over Eddie’s eyes to shield them from the sudden burst of light. She succeeded, at the cost of making him completely blind. He gripped Jamie’s hand tighter as she tugged him towards the room’s other corner.</p><p>“Hey, Max!” In the hallway, Parker didn’t bother with subtlety as he greeted the man who was apparently called Max. </p><p>“Peter?! I… well, hello!” Through the walls, Max sounded more surprised than suspicious. “I wasn’t expecting… I  didn’t even know you were in Cali! What are you doing here? How… how did you even get in?”</p><p>“Well, I… gave myself a copy of the master key when the locks for this place were being made. Just in case there was trouble. Hope you don’t mind, I’m having to borrow the plutonium enrichment chamber, and the quantum computer. Just for the evening, though!”</p><p>“You look like shit.” </p><p>Eddie blinked when he heard Felicia’s voice so close by; when Symby finally peeled back from his eyes he saw that Jamie had in fact pulled him <em> towards </em>her and not away as he’d assumed. Jamie herself was sitting on top of one of the counters laid out in rows across the room, dangling her legs as she looked down at the phone in her hands, utterly uncaring that she’d just left Eddie to flounder in the ice cold water that was called ‘Felicia’. He had to fight the urge to flinch away from her.</p><p>“I usually do, don’t I?” he asked over a guilty gulp, seeing that Jamie had plugged her ears up with buds so Felicia didn’t feel the need to censor herself.</p><p>“I mean <em> more </em> shit than usual,” she clarified. He couldn’t tell if it was her way of asking <em> why </em>he looked more shit than usual; but even if she was asking, he didn’t want to tell her. How the hell was he supposed to explain that he was thinking about how she’d looked at him, how he’d looked at her, how they’d loved each other and Jamie had loved them, how peaceful it had been in that apartment they shared with their daughter and her symbiote…</p><p>He had to look away from her. All he could see was her mouth, and her lips, and if he didn’t stop seeing them he’d have a heart attack. </p><p>“Well, you <em> do </em>technically own most of the equipment, I guess,” the muffled voice from outside was saying. “But, well, you really should make an appointment next time, Pete-”</p><p>“Hey, I tried, but your secretary said you were still on your honeymoon.”</p><p>“She did? Why… I... well, Hector <em> does </em> think I spend too much overtime around here…”</p><p>“See what I mean? Go easy on yourself, Max. Give yourself some time off, you’ve earned it! I’m sure Hector will be glad to see you home.”<br/>“I… I guess… well, alright. Just clean up after yourself, whatever you’re doing in there. And make sure the rubber band goes back on the safety switch!”</p><p>Footsteps faded down the corridor, and Parker slumped against the door when he opened it and pulled himself back inside the lab. </p><p>“Phew… right, where was I?” He seemed utterly oblivious to Eddie being on the precipice of a total emotional meltdown, which suited Eddie just fine. </p><p><b> <em>“You’re being overdramatic again, darling.”</em> </b> </p><p><em> ‘And </em> you’re <em> not being very helpful right now, Symby!’ </em>She was pushing air in and out of his lungs for him, but that was about it. Christ, he wished he was alone so he could at least talk to her… he couldn’t even pull himself away from the Felicia-Jamie cluster in the corner of the room without making it entirely obvious that something was wrong with him. </p><p>Well, it already<em> was </em> obvious. But the last thing he needed was Felicia thinking he was going insane (again).</p><p>“The Web itself no longer powers multiverse travel,” Parker was muttering to himself, “but I can still use it as a map… combine that with previous coordinates logged by Cindy during the Spider-verse event… overlay that map with known spacetime and predict the background quantum foam fluctuations to take advantage of them...”</p><p>Too late, he <em> was </em>going insane. The sheer strength of his confusion actually managed to snap him right out of his languishing spiral (or maybe Symby was devouring all of his adrenaline for him. Whatever worked). </p><p>
  <b> <em>“Ah, quantum entanglement. He’s trying to decipher a path between certain entangled atoms across the multiverse.”</em> </b>
</p><p>Symby sounded so sure, so impressed, yet she refused to explain any of it in plain English. Eddie was getting desperate. </p><p>“What the <em> fuck </em> is he talking about?” Though Jamie was still deaf to the world, he still kept his voice low as he asked Felicia.  </p><p>“You think <em> I </em> have any idea?” she scoffed. “I’m just here to be the clueless lab assistant.”</p><p>“So what am <em> I </em>here for?”</p><p>“You’re the brawn. Pete is the brains. I’m obviously the beauty.”</p><p>“Yeah. Obviously...” Eddie thought he kept his reply to a low mutter, but then Felicia looked at him. Parker’s big mouth was all that saved him from her questing eyes.</p><p>“Okay! I think I’ve fixed it.” He held aloft the web watch like it was some kind of holy artefact. </p><p>“You think?” Felicia thankfully abandoned any intentions to interrogate Eddie, instead turning them onto Peter.</p><p>“It turns on, and I can input a numerical universe code. The sensors are giving off all the right readings. But the only way to know for sure is to… well, try it out. I can do a trial run by setting to a known multiverse and timing it to come back here.... hold on.”</p><p>He set off and scavenged the lab for a pen, then quickly scribbled ‘Property of 618 Peter Parker’ on a piece of paper. Then he looped the paper around the watch like it was a stiff ribbon. </p><p>“Let’s see… if I set it to a universe with a living Spider, it should instantly gravitate to that Spider thanks to the most recent snapshot of the Web… here goes!” His thumb pressed a button on the front of the watch, then it popped right out of his hand- and out of existence. A few silent seconds passed, then there was a buzzing sound. Parker fished his phone out of a pocket, and a woman’s incredulous voice came out of the speaker.</p><p>
  <em> “Peter, did you just drop a watch on top of my head!?” </em>
</p><p>“Sure did, Gwen! Could you do me a favor and set it to come back here?”</p><p><em> “Uh… okay. But don’t do it again or I’ll come back with it to fall on </em> your <em> head.” </em></p><p>“Noted!” Parker looked like he’d just won the lottery as he hung up.</p><p>“You have a cell service that can cross universes?” Felicia asked, sounding more exhausted than impressed by such a feat. </p><p>“Actually, if you just have the right number and extension you can call just about anyone from anywhere.” Peter couldn’t stop from sounding like the smug asshole he really was, just as the watch suddenly reappeared and almost hit the floor before he swooped in to catch it. </p><p>“That sounds <em> wildly </em>overpowered and illogical,” Felicia said, making no attempt to help Parker up off the floor.</p><p>“Hey, I don’t make the rules of the multiverse, I just try to break them.”</p><p>“So we can call Jamie from here,” Eddie butted in with a nod towards the leg-dangling kid, “to make sure she’s got home safe?”</p><p>“Sure,” Parker said. “But… Jamie, you didn’t come here with a phone, did you?” He raised his voice so Jamie would hear him through her earbuds. She took one out of her ear as she shook her head. </p><p>“Nuh-uh.”</p><p>“Well, how about you just keep that one I gave you?” Felicia offered, crossing her arms as she leaned against the counter Jamie was sitting on. “So once you’re home, you can use it to call us here.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>“Perfect. Eddie, give me your number.”<br/>“Wha?” Eddie heard her just fine, but he was so caught off-guard by the demand that that sound was all that came up his throat.</p><p>“She’ll need to call one of us, and obviously I’m not gonna have a phone on me after she’s gone.”</p><p>“Right… yeah, sure.” His own secondhand phone was ancient compared to Felicia’s, but it could call and text and that was all he ever needed. He pulled it out of Symby’s pocket and read the number out loud.</p><p>“Make sure the extension is 618,” Parker said. “That’s the code for our universe.”</p><p>“Does it mean anything?” Felicia asked as she keyed in Eddie’s number. </p><p>“Only that there’s at least six hundred and seventeen other universes like ours. 001 is where the Web of Life and Destiny is.”</p><p>“That’s <em> still </em>a really fucking corny name,” Eddie said, and he was one again caught off-guard when he heard Felicia’s sound of agreement.</p><p>“Well, <em> I’m </em> not the one who came up with it, okay!” Parker groaned. “You got a problem with it, then take it up with the Patternmaker cause she’s the one who’s running the whole show now.”</p><p>“The Patternmaker who’s also your daughter?”</p><p>“Exactly, so you know which one of us she’s gonna listen to.” And, unless Eddie wanted to bring Venom out for a quick scare, that was the end of that argument. Felicia handed her phone back to Jamie and waited for her to plug the earbuds back in before she said anything. </p><p>“What about those... ‘Inheritors’ you mentioned?” she asked Peter, keeping her voice quiet just in case the kid could still hear (and instantly making Eddie’s heart palpitate as he remembered <em> that </em>unfortunate roadblock). “Will they show up when we use this thing on Jamie?”</p><p>“Mmmmaybe… possibly… but hopefully not... hold on, I’ll do a few tweaks.” Parker turned away towards a table holding a microscope, and once he was occupied Felicia immediately rounded on Eddie.</p><p>“Did you tell him about Sleeper?” She was whispering, keeping her head down so it wasn’t obvious at first glance that she was speaking at all.</p><p>“I… was gonna. At some point.” It wasn’t a total lie, he just… hadn’t reached that point yet. Crap, was that why Symby had been so quiet most of the evening?</p><p><b> <em>“You can’t always rely on me to make you do things that have to be done,” </em> </b>she told him, all but confirming that Eddie was supposed to have told Peter hours ago of his own accord. </p><p>“Well.” Felicia exhaled. “It’s now or never.”</p><p>And it really was. Parker was making the final adjustments at that very moment, and there was no knowing if he had to change anything to account for a symbiote. Like Symby had said, it <em> had </em>to be done. But that didn’t mean Eddie had to be happy about it.</p><p>“Why do <em> I </em> have to tell him?” he asked Felicia. “He’s <em> your </em>ex, he’ll listen to you more than me.”</p><p>She looked at him like he’d just started drooling all over the floor (which was a pretty common occurrence with Venom, at least). “I can tell you don’t have much experience with relationships... you’re the one who knows about symbiotes, anyway. I assume you know what Sleeper’s like. You can tell him all about it a lot better than I can.”</p><p>Eddie wanted to tell her that <em> no </em> , he <em> didn’t </em> know what Sleeper was like, he’d only heard him for the first time ten minutes ago (had it only been ten minutes? Jesus...) and only managed to surmise that he <em> wasn’t </em>going to turn into another Carnage at least, but he knew there’d be no point to saying anything about it.</p><p>(There were other things he wanted to tell her, too, but they’d be just as pointless.)</p><p>“Fine. I’ll… I’ll tell him.” He sighed.</p><p>“Good luck.” Felicia’s utterance of support was the final push needed to make Eddie go and get it over with.</p><p>As he trudged over to Parker, Jamie’s voice piqued up behind him.</p><p>“Felicia? What’s an Inheritor?”</p><p>He missed a step in his walk, and wanted to shake himself for being so careless. It didn’t matter that her ears had been covered; a symbiote was just a second set of ears who could hear everything, and he should have known that. But he had his own problem to deal with without jumping in to help Felicia come up with a convincing lie.</p><p>(Besides, she was good enough at lies all by herself. And on their side of the moral compass, that was a compliment.)</p><p>“Parker.” Eddie announced his approach so that the spider wouldn’t think he was sneaking up behind him to break his neck or just frighten him or something.</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Tempting, though.”</em> </b>
</p><p>Very tempting indeed.</p><p>“I’m not gonna drop you off in a universe where I don’t exist, Eddie,” Parker said without looking away from his work, “so don’t ask me to.”</p><p>Eddie didn’t even <em> know </em> there were worlds that weren’t plagued by the likes of Spider-Man, but now he figured there <em> had </em>to be if there was one with him married to Felicia…</p><p>(And it still hurt to think about it.)</p><p>“Look, the thing is...” Eddie pushed through his confession so he would have something else to fret over. “I haven’t been completely honest.”</p><p>“What a surprise.”</p><p>Urge to break neck; steadily rising.</p><p>“I’m trying to be <em> helpful </em>right now, believe it or not,” Eddie said through clenched teeth. There’s… look, there’s something you need to know about Jamie-”</p><p>"You're her dad,” Peter said. “I know."</p><p>If it wasn’t for Symby stubbornly keeping the shreds of his brain together, Eddie might have started feeling it leaking out of his ears.</p><p>"Wha-?! How-?!! How the <em> fuck </em> did you figure that out?!" He hissed low to make sure Felicia couldn’t overhear from the other side of the lab. But did she tell Parker after all, just to make Eddie’s life slightly more hellish? Was she <em> really </em>as evil as she was beautiful?</p><p>From the look on Parker’s face as he glanced up from his workbench, he was just thinking that Eddie was as dumb as he was damned.</p><p>"Brock, come on. It’s <em> obvious </em>. Me and Cindy clicked it within like five minutes, so I’ve had two days for the shock to wear off. I assume the only way Felicia herself didn’t realise it is cause she was blinded by denial.”</p><p>So that explained why the spider was taking the news so well. And he’d probably just guessed that Felicia hadn’t known until recently (was that why he’d been watching them both on the plane? To make sure <em> Felicia </em> wouldn’t snap rather than Eddie?). </p><p>“I mean… yeah,” Eddie had to admit. “Probably. But... that’s not what I was gonna say.”</p><p>“Jeesh, what else are you three hiding, then?"</p><p>Compared to telling Parker that his worst enemy had married and impregnated his most infamous ex, explaining Sleeper should have been a walk in the park. But the only things Eddie found easy were eating, and sleeping, and killing.</p><p>(And looking at Felicia, Symby reminded him for some reason. But it was as hard to look away from her as it was to <em> keep </em> looking.)</p><p>“The thing is… Jamie.” Eddie sighed, looking down at his feet as he forced the secret out while he still had strength in his lungs. “She has a symbiote. I think that’s why the Inheritors are after her. Because... she <em> does </em>have spider powers.”</p><p>Peter finally looked up from his tinkering. “Really? But…” He shook his head. “No, that can’t be right.”</p><p>“How not? You said-”</p><p>“Inheritors won’t eat anyone who hosts a symbiote. Whether or not they’re a Spider, the symbiote makes them inedible.”</p><p>That <em> should </em>have been a relief to Eddie. But it only made him more confused.</p><p>“So… it’s not an Inheritor that’s after her?” he asked.</p><p>“If she’s really a host, then no, it can’t be.”</p><p>“Then what the fuck <em> is </em> trying to get her?!” The devil you knew was better than the one that you didn’t know, which meant there was <em> still </em> something scary coming after his kid and now he didn’t even know what to call it. </p><p>“How the hell should I know?!” Peter argued. “<em> You’re </em>the symbiote expert!”</p><p>“And <em> you’re </em> supposed to be the genius here!” Eddie snapped back.</p><p>“Shit…” Parker sighed as he pulled his goggles from his head, wearily pushing hair back from his forehead. If <em> he </em>didn’t know what the hell was going on, then there probably wasn’t anyone else around who did. So there wasn’t much use in agonizing over it, not when there were so many other things tearing Eddie’s head apart. </p><p>“Does this change anything?” he asked. “About how to get her home?” That was still the main issue, the whole reason he’d told Parker in the first place. </p><p>“I don’t think so… if the symbiote is within her, then it should get taken along with her.”</p><p>“<em> Should </em>?”</p><p>“I’ve never seen one of these used on a host, Brock, so I can’t know for sure. Unless <em> you </em> want to test it out for her.” </p><p>Eddie shared a word with Symby that lasted only as long as a neuron pulse. Their decision was that swift.</p><p>“Alright,” he said, and Parker seemed to do a double-take. </p><p>“Wait, really?”</p><p>“We’re not sending her through anything that we won’t go through ourselves.” The affirmation came from both Eddie and Symby. Jamie wasn’t his kid, sure, but…</p><p>But, dammit, he was still going to treat her as if she was. </p><p>“Okay…if you’re sure.” Parker seemed <em> pleasantly </em>surprised that Eddie actually went for his suggestion. “I’ll just have to calibrate it to a nearby universe.”</p><p>“Can’t I just go to the one you’re sending her to?” It was an idea that Eddie almost instantly regretted giving voice to, so he figured it was Symby who made him voice it in the first place. Being there in Jamie’s memories was enough torture, why the hell did he want to <em> actually </em> go there?!</p><p>Oh, but he knew exactly why. So he could see it for his own eyes, and know that it was possible and that it really existed. He just couldn’t help himself.</p><p>“Well, sure. If you want.” Parker didn’t seem to suspect Eddie’s ulterior motives, at least. “I’ll need some of her DNA to trace where she’s from.”</p><p>“DNA… right.” Symby told him what to do. Eddie looked behind himself, finding Jamie still swinging her legs back and forth under the table she was perched on. Felicia was next to her, and it seemed she’d managed to cover up what an Inheritor actually was for her. </p><p>“Jamie!” As he called over, her head perked up- as well as Felicia’s.</p><p>“Uh huh?” Jamie pulled her hood down like she just remembered she had it over her head, and the cat ears ended up pooling around her neck. Eddie approached her with his hand around a beaker he’d grabbed on his way over.</p><p>“I need you to spit into this,” he said.</p><p>“Okay.” </p><p>“Y’know I… could have just used a strand of hair,” Peter said, utterly ungrateful as usual as he gingerly took the beaker. “But whatever.”</p><p>“Is it time to go yet?” Though the table lifted her a distance off the floor, Jamie still only reached the top of Eddie’s chest. </p><p>“Almost,” he said, trying to sound as ready for it as she was. “You excited?”</p><p>“I think so.” She looked away, as if she wasn’t sure if she’d given the right answer. </p><p>“He’s taking the symbiote news pretty well, isn’t he?” Felicia caught Eddie’s attention now, crossing her arms as she looked over at Peter doing whatever he was doing. Eddie very quickly decided not to tell her that Peter had taken knowing <em> everything </em>pretty well.</p><p>“He said that it can’t be Inheritors coming for Jamie,” he relayed with his voice as low as it could go. “They can’t eat symbiotes.”</p><p>Felicia’s eyebrows creased, and she matched his whisper. “But… then what <em> is </em>after her?” </p><p>“That’s exactly what I asked him. And he doesn’t know. But I’m gonna make sure the watch is safe for symbiotes. So if it is, we’ll at least get the kid back where she belongs.”</p><p>Felicia nodded as she looked away. “So that’ll be it, then.”</p><p>“I guess so.”</p><p>“She goes home. We go home.”</p><p>And that would be the end of it.</p><p><b> <em>“Does she really think it will be that simple?”</em> </b> Symby bubbled up at the back of Eddie’s throat, as if he was supposed to know what she was talking about. <em> Nothing </em>was simple about this evening, true, but surely the ending would be straightforward enough. </p><p>Surely...</p><p><em> ‘You’re up to something, Symby,’ </em> Eddie accused. ‘ <em> I can tell.’ </em>As if the mystery nightmare man wasn’t enough to content with, now his own beloved symbiote was working against him somehow!</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Why, whatever do you mean, love?”</em> </b>
</p><p>For all that she liked to point out people making fun of him, Eddie felt like she was doing exactly that to him at that moment. Just because he couldn’t hear her laughing didn’t mean that she wasn’t. But maybe the sound was buried under the thud of blood in his head, or the sound of Parker’s triumphant voice. </p><p>“Okay… Earth 27032019.” Parker squinted down at the computer he was using. “Wow, that’s a mouthful. Ready when you are, Brock.” </p><p>“So what, I just put it on and press a button?” Eddie weighed the watch in his hand, unable to comprehend how such a light little thing could pull him across time and space and everything in between.</p><p>“Pretty much,” Peter said from behind the computer. “The first button will take you to the other universe. You might feel disoriented during it, but I’ve set the coordinates to the middle of Central Park so it should be solid ground. Once you’re there, just hit the second button from the left and it’ll take you back. And… one more thing.” He lowered his voice, gesturing for Eddie to come close so he could whisper.</p><p>“Whatever it is that’s trying to get Jamie… it might still show up when you activate it. Be prepared.” </p><p>It was probably the first time he’d ever been sincere towards Eddie. He may have been Spider-Man, eternal asshole onto the ages... but he wanted Jamie to be safe as much as Eddie did. After all, he’d gone to all this effort to see her home.</p><p>So maybe, <em>maybe</em>, he wasn’t <em>quite </em>so bad anymore.</p><p>Eddie nodded. “We’re ready.” </p><p>He secured the watch around his wrist, stretching the band as tight as it could go, and it beeped as it locked into place. </p><p>“See you when you get back.” Felicia kept a safe distance away with Jamie, who was waving farewell already. </p><p>
  <em> ‘You sure you’re ready, Symby?’ </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Always. Let’s do it.”</em> </b>
</p><p>Eddie pressed the button.</p><p>Parker had right about one thing; it <em> was </em> disorienting. If being connected to Sleeper was like being put under anaesthesia, going through the multiverse was like waking up from a coma by being plunged head-first into ice water. His breath was frozen, an inhalation that started but never ended, and Symby was surging in his veins as she held on tight to the anchors in his bone marrow. He could see light streaming past him, the individual photons, which meant he was going <em> faster </em>than them. He was no scientist, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh well. He’d already seen nothing but impossibilities that evening.</p><p>But then-</p><p>The light was gone. Engulfed, snuffed out, <em> obliterated </em>.</p><p>There was nothing but darkness.</p><p>Heavy. Suffocating. </p><p>There was air trapped in his lungs, but he couldn’t do anything to it. Symby couldn’t do anything. She could only hiss along his tingling spine.</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Eddie…”</em> </b>
</p><p>She tried to leap from his skin, cocooning him in all her warning signs.</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Eddie, we need to get out of here.”</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> ‘What’s wrong? What is it?’ </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>“This is bad, this is wrong, we shouldn’t be here, we need to leave, we need to leave-!”</em> </b>
</p><p>Then the darkness spoke.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="Knull"> "<b>YOU… ARE NOT WHO I AM LOOKING FOR."</b> </span>
</p><p> </p><p>It wrapped jagged bones around Eddie’s chest.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="Knull"> "<b>WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS THE CHILD HOST?"</b> </span>
</p><p> </p><p>It squeezed his heart, forcing Symby to spill out of his aorta. It dragged him towards the void, and the void blinked once as its red red glare washed over him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="Knull"> "<b>WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CHILDREN, EDWARD BROCK?"</b></span>
</p><p> </p><p>It dragged him in. </p><p>Symby was trying to pull herself free.</p><p>Not of the darkness, but of Eddie.</p><p>She was being torn from her chains in his bones.</p><p>And when she was free, then Eddie would be alone.</p><p>And then he would die here.</p><p>And then no one would ever find him.</p><p>And then he would die. </p><p>And then Jamie would be left behind. </p><p>And then he would die.</p><p>And then Felicia would never know-</p><p>
  <b> <em>“Eddie, the second button! Press it!”</em> </b>
</p><p>He wanted to lift his hand, but he didn’t know where it was.</p><p>Someone must have eventually pressed it, because he didn’t die. </p><p>But he should have.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hoo boy this was long. Anyway Eddie comes face to face with his kids’ real dad, in more ways than one. But more importantly, he has a nervous breakdown over Felicia being a MILF. he just can’t handle it man!!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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